The three children of slain Bronx NYPD detective first-grade Miosotis Familia will have a new place to call home by Christmas through the heartwarming generosity of New Yorkers.
Familia, 48, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 5, while sitting in an NYPD mobile command vehicle with her partner on gang detail in Fordham Heights.
A three-bedroom co-op apartment in Riverdale was purchased for Familia’s children: Genesis Villella, 20, and her twin siblings Delilah and Peter Vega, 12, after $818,000 was raised.
Whatever money is left after the purchase and renovations will be placed in a trust fund for them.
The Stephen Siller Tunnels to Towers Foundation, along with The Daily News and the Skyview Apartments LLC, raised the money to help the slain police officer’s children.
Tunnels to Towers raised $429,318; Daily News $263,682 (with $10,000 from the paper and the rest from its readers); and Skyview $125,000.
Tiller was the firefighter who ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel on 9/11 to the World Trade Center where he perished in the collapse.
His brother, Frank Siller, is chairman of the foundation. Its website is www.Tunne
The gunman, Alexander Bonds, who was killed by responding police officers, had been treated and released at St. Barnabas Hospital just days prior to the shooting.
A convicted felon with a lengthly rap sheet, Bonds, 34, had been prescribed anti-depressants by the hospital.
Afterward, Governor Cuomo announced a review of Bond’s treatment prior to the shooting by the NYS Department of Health to determine whether all relevant policies and safeguards were taken by the hospital.
St. Barnabas spokesman Howard Metzer defended the hospital at the time, saying it had followed proper procedures treating Bonds.
“We believe all mental health procedures and safeguards were properly followed in the hospital’s evaluation of Mr. Bonds during the seven- to eight-hour period he was observed in our emergency room on July 1,” Metzer said.
Bond’s girlfriend disagreed, however, saying she had tried in vain to keep him at the hospital after he made comments that he wanted to kill people.
Familia’s assassination in the line of duty was reminiscent of the killing of NYPD detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn in 2014.
“Officer Miosotis Familia was killed in the exact same way,” Siller said. “She was shot through a window of a command vehicle and murdered in cold blood. This is yet another senseless tragedy.”
NYPD Chief of Patrol Terance Monahan remembered Familia, who was assigned to the 46th Precinct, as a single mother raising three children, who also cared for her elderly mother.
“She was their caregiver, their sole support,” Monahan said. “She was the one they depended on for everything and she was taken away solely because she was a cop.”
Familia’s wake was held Monday, July 10, at World Changers Church on Grand Concourse, with a funeral Mass attended by scores of law enforcement officials on Tuesday, July 11.
