Courtesy of NYPD
Fellow officers salute Anastasios Tsakos as his body is transported by NYPD vehicles.
By Michael V. Cusenza
A 14-year veteran City cop was killed early Tuesday on the Long Island Expressway in Fresh Meadows by an allegedly unlicensed, intoxicated driver, according to City officials.
Jessica Beauvais, 32, has been charged for allegedly driving while intoxicated and striking Police Officer Anastasios Tsakos, 43, a married father of two young children.
According to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, Beauvais, 32, of Hempstead, Long Island, is being held pending arraignment on a 13-count complaint charging her with manslaughter in the second degree, aggravated manslaughter in the second degree, vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, leaving the scene of an incident without reporting/death, unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the second and third degree, operating a motor vehicle while under influence of alcohol or drugs, as a felony, aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in the first degree, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, operating motor vehicle while under influence of alcohol, reckless driving, operating vehicle approaching parked, stopped, standing authorized emergency vehicle.
Katz said that that at approximately 12:30 a.m. on April 27, 2021, police responded to the scene of a car crash on the Long Island Expressway ramp to the Clearview Expressway. A driver, who was going eastbound on the LIE, lost control of the vehicle and slammed into a concrete wall while attempting to exit the expressway. The automobile burst into flames. The driver and two passengers were removed from the vehicle and rushed to a nearby hospital. A third passenger died at the scene.
NYPD officers who responded to the scene of the crash, began to investigate with Officer Tsakos assisting with traffic control. Beauvais, who was driving a 2013 Volkswagen Passat, was going eastbound on the LIE at that time. Beauvais was allegedly driving at a high rate of speed as she approached Tsakos.
According to the charges, the defendant allegedly struck Tsakos, who was thrown in the air and landed in a nearby patch of grass. Beauvais did not stop or slow down and travelled several exits before exiting onto the Horace Harding Expressway where her car jumped the curb and mounted the sidewalk in front of 221-22 Horace Harding Expwy., where police surrounded her in the vehicle. Beauvais then allegedly attempted to flee the scene by placing her car in reverse and ramming the police vehicle behind her twice before coming to a full stop. She was immediately apprehended by members of the NYPD.
According to the charges, DA Katz said, Beauvais was removed to the 112th Police Precinct where she submitted to an intoxilyzer test, which was administered over two hours after the fatal crash. The results of the test showed the defendant allegedly had a blood alcohol content of .15 – which is above the legal limit of .08 in New York City.
Tsakos was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital but died as a result of the injuries.
“The loss of life of a police officer who was out there on that highway and whose mission, in the purest sense, was keeping people safe is a profound tragedy. The fact that that life was taken by a driver whose license had been suspended, and who was intoxicated, is nothing short of criminal and should be treated that way,” said City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.
If convicted, Beauvais faces up to 15 years in prison.
