NYPD officer killed in murder-suicide in the Bronx laid to rest
INWOOD, Bronx (WABC) -- Family and friends paid final respects on Friday to NYPD Officer Alexis Martinez, who was shot and killed by his own father who suffered from mental health issues.
The off-duty officer was killed last week in his father's Bronx apartment in an apparent murder-suicide.
Family members sobbed outside of St. Elizabeth's Church in Inwood Friday morning as the hearse, led by a police motorcade, arrived.
Officer Martinez' flag-draped casket was carried in by his brothers and sisters in blue.
Loved ones wore white t-shirts emblazoned with a silhouette of the officer, complete with angel wings and a bat in his hand to acknowledge the sport he played and loved the most.
He wore number 7 on the baseball teams he played for.
"I actually had him leading off all the time and I knew when he came, we were winning the game just with the smile and energy he brought," said Sgt. Dennis Rodriguez, President of the New York Dominican Officers Organization.
NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban and Mayor Eric Adams were both on hand to pay their respects.
In his remarks to those gathered, Adams said the tragedy of Martinez' death has left him feeling lost as mayor of the nation's largest city.
At only 26, friends say Officer Martinez was a rising star in the NYPD. After just five years, he'd already passed the sergeant's test, and was working towards a detective shield in Bronx narcotics, where he and Sgt. Lissette Henriquez became fast friends.
"He wanted to give back to his community and was all about the youth," said Henriquez. "We went through COVID, and riots, and he was still in it. He was all about his community. He had great mentors and that's what he wanted to give back."
Martinez was well known among Hispanic fraternal organizations in the NYPD, and the department's baseball league.
"He always wanted to set an example and help the kids, always the best for the community," friend Jose Lopez said through a translator.
Family friend Jose De La Cruz watched Martinez grow up not far from here, and said he saw it as his duty to give back to the community.
As a rookie he was assigned to the 34th Precinct, just a few blocks away from the funeral home where his fellow officers built a memorial to their friend.
"He's a beautiful person, a person who was always happy and was just an example of who to follow, someone to follow," friend Dago Nunez said.
But while he risked his life for New Yorkers, he would lose his life at home, shot by his own father, who then turned the gun on himself.
It's a family tragedy that's still impossible to explain.
"He was an excellent boy," De La Cruz said. "And we can't even make sense of what happened."
"It is definitely tragic, tragic," he said.
Officer Martinez will be buried in the Dominican Republic.
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