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‘Seasoned Vet’ Hailed As One of Bay Ridge’s Best Cops

By —Tom Tracy

A “seasoned veteran” who is expected to retire from the NYPD this month was named one of Bay Ridge’s “Cops of the Month” in January for stopping a man with a gun on 5th Avenue. Standing proudly with his wife Kathleen and his kids Kristen, Jacqueline and Paul, Sergeant Anthony Donadio of the 68th Precinct’s anti crime team received a Cop of the Month certificate as well as a hearty congratulations from Deputy Inspector William Aubry, the precinct’s commander. Also commended during last week’s 68th Precinct Community Council meeting were Police Officers John Iorio and Peter Pasqualone, who work with Donadio on the anti-crime team. Aubry explained that the three officers were patrolling Bay Ridge when they were asked to respond to an angry mob outside of a 5th Avenue bar. As they tried to disperse the crowd, the officers saw one of the men reach for a gun hidden in his waistband. The officers chased the gunman down a nearby alley between 84th and 83rd streets before apprehending the man and recovering a loaded .22 caliber pistol. Aubry said that the officers should be commended for apprehending the suspect without resorting to gunfire. “They obtained a firearm from this man without shooting him, without being shot themselves or without any bystanders getting shot,” Aubry said. Cops noted later that the suspect, who was not named, was on probation when he was taken into custody. The brief award ceremony held at the 68th Precinct was bittersweet since word had already spread that Sergeant Donadio had announced his retirement after 22 years of service. Donadio started his career in the nearby 62nd Precinct in Bensonhurst and soon came over to Bay Ridge, where he was a sergeant for over 14 years. Most of those years were served in the precinct’s Anti Crime Unit – plain clothes cops who respond to street crimes in the command along with uniformed patrol officers. During his career as an anti-crime sergeant, Donadio supervised over twenty police officers who were responsible for more than 2,000 arrests, his colleagues said. “He’s retiring in two weeks and he’s still be patrolling with us,” said Police Officer Pasqualone. “He’s still active, and he’s going to be that way to the last day.” Donadio, Aubry said, “is a crutch that I would always rely on.” “He knew the crime patterns, knew the streets and he knew all the cops in the command,” he said. “That’s quite an asset we’ll be losing.