A veteran police officer was killed just after midnight today in a collision with a drunk driver going the wrong way on the Northern State Parkway by Dix Hills on Long Island, investigators say. Officer Andre Menzies, 35, was driving east when he was hit by Michael Bowen, 50, of Brooklyn. Witnesses say Bowen, behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Astro van, was on the wrong side of the parkway. Menzies, who lived in North Babylon, was pronounced dead at the scene, while Bowen sustained minor injuries.
Bowen was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and reckless driving; police tell Newsday (paywall) he submitted to a breath-analyzer test but they did not release the results. Menzies, a nine-year veteran of the NYPD who was assigned to the Queens housing bureau, leaves behind a wife and five children: Joshua, 9, and daughters, Victoria Sky 7, Andrea, 15, Melissa, 14, and Tiffany, 12
Earlier today, Mayor Bloomberg told reporters, "This is just another tragic reminder of the deadly danger of drunk driving. So make no mistake about it, we are determined to stop drunk driving now - before the holiday season gets into full swing. We don't want any more of this kind of carnage that we saw this weekend." Yesterday 17-year-old Emily Sexton was critically injured after getting hit by a drunk driver as she waited at a bus stop on City Island.
