Metro

Honor for Army National Guardsman gunned down by NYPD

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‘MY BABY’: Clutching the flag that draped his coffin, Cecilia Reyes weeps yesterday at the Queens burial of her son, Army National Guardsman Noel Polanco (right), who was shot dead by police during a traffic stop. (
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The Army National Guardsman gunned down by a city cop on a Queens highway last week was posthumously promoted to sergeant just before his military funeral yesterday.

Noel Polanco, 22, was given the honor in a Corona church during a touching memorial service that drew several hundred people. Polanco was then laid to rest in a military burial with a color guard and a rifle-volley salute.

“I’m always going to miss him, and I’m never going to see him again, but I know I will meet him again,” Polanco’s weeping mother, Cecilia Reyes, told mourners at the service, where she wore his leather vest, emblazoned with his nickname, “Sparxxz,” which he got as a member of an automotive club.

“I love you, Noel,” she added.

Polanco’s battalion commander, Lt. Col. James Freehart, announced his fallen comrade’s promotion during the service at the Eternal Love Baptist Church.

Polanco, whose coffin was draped in a US flag, was also awarded the Army Achievement Medal.

His oldest brother, Army Sgt. Jonathan Polanco, told the crowd, which included several dozen guardsmen, “I want my brother to rest in peace, but I know, along with peace, you have to have justice as well.”

NYPD Detective Hassan Hamdy shot and killed Polanco after pulling him over near La Guardia Airport last Friday for allegedly erratic driving.

Hamdy has said Polanco ignored his order to put his hands up and reached to the floor of the car, causing the elite NYPD detective to fear for his life, according to sources.

But a passenger in the car said Polanco had his hands on the steering wheel the whole time.

Queens DA Richard Brown has said his office is investigating.

The Rev. Al Sharpton gave a fiery sermon at Polanco’s memorial.

“When you saw him as a suspect, well, he was a soldier,” he said as if addressing the cops. “When you saw him as a gang member, well, his gang was the US Army.”

Polanco’s sister, Amanda Reyes, called her brother “my inspiration.”

“He is the reason I am strong for my mom and for my family,’’ she said. “I’ll do everything to make sure I take his place because that’s what I know he would want.”

Polanco’s mother wailed later as she knelt over her son’s plot at Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens and guardsmen handed her the flag that had been on his coffin.

“My baby! I miss my baby! I’m not going to see him anymore!” she wept. “I just want my baby! That’s all I want! Oh, my God!”