New York, NY – In Reversal, Families of Slain Auxiliary Officers Will Receive U.S. Benefits

New York, NY – Reversing rulings that had prompted public protests, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that the families of two unarmed auxiliary police officers who were killed last year by a gunman in Greenwich Village were entitled to federal death benefits.

The department said it would award about $300,000 each to the families of the officers, Nicholas T. Pekearo and Yevgeniy Marshalik, under a program which is intended to compensate the survivors of police officers, firefighters and other public safety personnel across the nation who are killed in line of duty.

Officers Pekearo, 28, and Marshalik, 19, were fatally shot on March 14, 2007, in a confrontation with David R. Garvin, who had fatally shot a bartender in a pizza restaurant.

They were initially denied of the benefits on the grounds that auxiliary officers in the city are not authorized to make arrests and therefore did not qualify under federal guidelines.

But Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, went and testified on behalf of the officers' families before a Justice Department hearing officer.

The Justice Department said it had been persuaded by Mr. Kelly's testimony and new evidence that had surfaced since the initial denial.

"New evidence showed that the officers were killed by the gunman specifically because he thought they were regular police officers," the department said in a statement. [NY Times]