Funeral Held For NYPD Detective Killed In Wrong-Way Crash On Sprain Brook Parkway
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Funeral services were held Wednesday for an off-duty NYPD detective killed in a wrong-way crash on the Sprain Brook Parkway.
Family and friends gathered at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem to bid a final farewell to Paul Duncan, 46, of Hartsdale, who was killed while on his way to work early last Friday in Greenburgh.
Assemblyman Calls For Review Of Parkway Entrances, Exits After Fatal Wrong-Way Crash
"He touched so many people's lives and he was a very special person," former classmate Sherelle Wright said.
"When it was confirmed I couldn't believe it," family friend Anita Howard said. "I was like, not him because it was a person who didn't deserve that. He really didn't deserve that."
Officers carried the casket draped in the NYPD flag into the standing room-only church. Duncan's police family supported his grieving widow and relatives as they said goodbye.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and First Deputy Ben Tucker were among the many mourners who gathered in the Harlem community where Duncan spent his childhood.
"We all grew up on 112th Street together. My younger brothers are the ones that gave him the application to join the police department," family friend Andy Toliver said. "He was a good kid from a rough neighborhood, it's unfortunate."
Duncan was married to his high school sweetheart and was the father of a teenage girl.
At the time of the crash, Duncan was on his way to work in Queens for an earlier shift that he took so he could be home sooner for his 13-year-old daughter.
"He was very close to his daughter, like dads are with their girls," NYPD Chaplain Father Carlos Rodriguez said.
Duncan had 16 years on the force and was just 10 months from retirement when he was killed. Duncan was a detective 1st grade and was assigned to the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau, police said.
Efren Moreano, 20, of Yonkers was driving northbound in the southbound lane when he hit Duncan's SUV head-on, police said.
Moreano remains hospitalized and will likely face charges in the crash, CBS2 reported. It is still unclear why Moreano was driving the wrong way. Toxicology tests are pending.
Duncan will be buried near his family's home in Westchester.
Meanwhile, officials said the fatal crash is a wake up call to inspect parkway exits and entrances.
"The configuration of the entrances and exits to our parkways, they are confusing," Assemblyman Tom Abinanti told WCBS 880's Sean Adams. "Clearly the confusion is even worse for those who are unfamiliar with the area, who may have an impairment because of age, because of an intoxicant."
Abinanti wants the state Department of Transportation to form an independent task force to review the configuration of and signage of Westchester's parkways.
"My review shows that some of these exits and entrances are not clearly marked, others are configured in a way that it's confusing as to which is the entrance and which is the exit," Abinanti said.
