The Bronx cop killed in a desperate struggle with an ex-con gave up a high-paying financial job to serve his community as a police officer, according to a friend’s emotional online remembrance.
“My phone rang around 3 am today and I got the devastating news that in the early morning hours, NYPD Officer Brian Mulkeen was shot and killed in the line of duty [in] the Bronx,” wrote pal Danny Tucker on Facebook, just hours after Mulkeen’s death Sunday.
“As I sit here and try and process it, I keep going back to one particular afternoon, about 7 years ago when Brian called me at work,” Tucker wrote. “Before I could even say hello, he said, ‘Tuck! I couldn’t wait to tell you, I quit my job at Merrill Lynch and I’m gonna be a cop!’
“Brian told me he felt like he wasn’t doing enough with his life and he wanted to make a difference,” Tucker said. “His words really stuck with me when he repeated that sentiment, and said ‘And I don’t wanna just say that, but really do it, really kick ass and make a difference.’
“This was a man who left a big-money job to go help and protect people in some of the worst neighborhoods in the country. While most of us were asleep last night, Brian paid the ultimate sacrifice during an Anti-Gang patrol in a neighborhood recently plagued by gun violence.”
Mulkeen, 33, was shot around 12:30 a.m. Sunday while patrolling NYCHA’s Edenwald Houses for signs of trouble amid a spate of gang violence in the area, authorities have said.
When he and two fellow plainclothes anti-crime cops approached Antonio Lavance Williams for a chat, the 27-year-old convicted burglar and reputed gangbanger took off running, a .32-caliber revolver in his hands, police and sources have said.
Mulkeen, a track-and-field star during his days at Fordham University, ran down Williams, tackling and disarming him, according to sources.
But Williams made a last-ditch grab for Mulkeen’s service Glock, pulling it from the holster and setting off a life-or-death tug-of-war, authorities have said.
“He’s reaching for it! He’s reaching for it!” were Mulkeen’s last words before five shots were fired from the gun.
Five other cops fired into the fray, which left Williams dead and Mulkeen dying, according to authorities.
Mulkeen was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center, where Mayor de Blasio noted that the slain officer had “made a choice, an incredibly noble choice, to leave a civilian life, a lucrative career.
“He wanted to protect other people. He loved the city.”
It remains unclear whether Mulkeen was shot with his own weapon, friendly fire or a combination of the two.
“Brian died a HERO this morning. I don’t throw that word around often or lightly,” his friend Tucker said in his post. “The world lost something this morning. Brian was a force of nature with a big heart and a deep soul. But most importantly, Brian was a HERO. Rest In Peace Brother.”