Loved ones of the brave police officer, who died saving his family from Hurricane Sandy, said a tearful goodbye today to the heroic cop — a “young man who made a difference.”
Officer Artur Kasprzak, 28, died in the basement of his home on Staten Island, the Monday night of the killer storm struck New York.
He shepherded six family members into his attic and away from flood waters. But when he went back into his basement to look for another person, when he got caught in the fast-rushing water.
“I have a lot things to do today, we’re trying to clean up the storm.We have a lot of people that don’t have a place to live,” Mayor Bloomberg told mourners at St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church in the New Brighton neighborhood of the island.
“But I can’t think of anything I wanted to do more today than pay respects to this young man who made a difference and is a great role model for us all.”
Kasprzak had been on the job for six years.
“Officer like him are the reason why this is the safest big city in the nation,” Bloomberg said. “He would do anything to protect his family and he did.”
Nearly 50 family and friends were surrounded by 100 city officers — including NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly — who came to pay their final respects.
“In the words of his platoon supervisor, “If I had 200 Arties I wouldn’t have a problem in the world,’ “ Kelly eulogized
” As for his fellow police officers, they recall Artie’s tremendous sense of humor, a smile that never left his face, and a reputation for speaking his mind.”
Additional reporting by David K. Li