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Hero Sixth auxiliary cops honored 10 years after tragic night

Protected from the rain by some plastic wrap, a framed photo of patrol partners Nicholas Pekearo, left, and Eugene Marshalik was left, along with a bouquet of flowers, on a lamppost on Bleecker St. last Thursday near where they were slain by a crazed gunman. Photos by Lincoln Anderson
Protected from the rain by some plastic wrap, a framed photo of patrol partners Nicholas Pekearo, left, and Eugene Marshalik was left, along with a bouquet of flowers, on a lamppost on Bleecker St. last Thursday near where they were slain by a crazed gunman. Photos by Lincoln Anderson

Last Thursday night, family members and Sixth Precinct officers marked the 10th anniversary of the deaths of hero Auxiliary Officers Nicholas Pekearo and Yevgeniy “Eugene” Marshalik.

Sixth Precinct officers marched from the precinct stationhouse on W. 10th St. to Sullivan and Bleecker Sts., where a simple memorial service was held. Flowers and photos of Pekearo, 28, and Marshalik, 19, were left on a street lamppost at the northeast corner of the intersection.

It was near that spot that the two young men were killed execution style by David Garvin. The mentally troubled former Marine-turned-filmmaker had just killed Arturo Romero, a bartender at a pizza place on W. Houston St. a few blocks away.

Police, in turn, gunned down Garvin in a hail of bullets after he emerged from the Village Tannery, on Bleecker St., inside of which he might have ducked to reload his gun.

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Higher up on the lamppost, a collage of photos of the two brave auxiliary officers was taped.

Pekearo, a writer, grew up in the Village. Marshalik immigrated with his family from Russia and was attending New York University.

On that fateful night, the two heard a report about Romero’s shooting over their police radio. As Garvin came running wildly by, they confronted him at the corner of Sullivan and Bleecker Sts., demanding he put down a bag that turned out to contain an additional 90 bullets. Garvin punched Marshalik in the face, but dropped the sack.

Then-Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the duo had saved lives by getting Garvin to shed the ammo.

“People are alive today because of the actions of Eugene and his partner,” Kelly said back then.

Although auxiliaries are only supposed to act as “the eyes and ears” of the police, the two then closely tailed Garvin up the street. But he doubled back and fatally shot Pekearo — who was wearing a bullet-resistant vest — six times in the torso and Marshalik once in the back of the head.

The two men’s deaths compelled the Police Department to finance bullet-resistant vests for all auxiliaries. Prior to that, the volunteer unarmed officers had to buy the vests — often secondhand ones — themselves.

Lincoln Anderson