“Memories Carry Us On,” Fallen Officers Buczek and Hoban, Remembered 35 Yrs On...

For thirty-five years, they have come to St. Elizabeth Church in Washington Heights to find strength in tragedy. They are the families, friends, and colleagues of the two young NYPD officers who, in two separate incidents, were each shot to death just hours apart on the night of October 18, 1988.

Christopher Hoban, 26, of Brooklyn and the Manhattan North Narcotics Unit, was part of an undercover buy and bust operation at an apartment at 19 West 105th Street, just off Central Park West. When Hoban declined to sample the cocaine he was being offered, the suspicious drug dealers searched Hoban’s partner and found his gun. Hoban immediately drew his weapon and in the ensuing shootout, both he and one of the drug dealers were killed. At 7:11 PM, code 10-13, officer needs assistance, went out over NYPD radios.

Two hours later, Michael Buczek, 24, Joseph Barbato, of the 34th Precinct, were responding to a routine 911 call: a woman at 580 West 161st Street was having trouble breathing. When they arrived, she was feeling better, with relatives by her side. Soon, an ambulance arrived, and the cops left. Barbato was talking to paramedics in the building’s lobby, when Buczek noticed three suspicious looking men get off the elevator.

Following them onto 161st Street. Buczek apprehended one suspect. The man resisted, dropped the bag he was holding, pulled out a 9-mm pistol, and shot Buczek once in the chest. Then he ran. Barbato fired four shots in return, wounding the gunman who, nonetheless, escaped, as did his two accomplices. At 9:45 p.m. another 10-13 was heard on police radios.

Barbato rushed Buczek to the nearby Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, but his partner couldn’t be saved.

The bag that Buczek’s slayer had been carrying contained cocaine—which he and his stick-up crew had just stolen from drug dealers inside the sick woman’s building.

Four days later, on October 22, an immense dual funeral was held at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Hoban, who was living in New Jersey at the time, attended elementary school here, and his family still lived nearby. An estimated 12,000 police officers filled the surrounding streets to honor their fallen comrades.

The first memorial mass for officers Hoban and Buczek was held on October 18th, 1989, at St. Elizabeth’s Church at Wadsworth Avenue and 187th Street, one block down and up a steep hill from the 34th Precinct on Broadway. A Buczek memorial plaque decorates the precinct’s entrance today.

It was an event filled with mixed emotions. There was sorrow, still, but there was also resilience, and the hope that a violence-wracked city—and neighborhood—could change for the better. One example of this was the co-founding of an entire neighborhood Little League by the Buczek family and one of Michael’s friends, Officer— now Sergeant—Johnny Moynihan now working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force. The Buczek LL, which saw cops from the local precinct volunteer as coaches and managers, had its run interrupted by COVID since 2020 but Moynihan, hopes to resurrect the league this spring to mark the 35th season. [The league was once the subject of an ESPN special which revealed over 30 of the kids coached by cops in the neighborhood Little League over the years went on become police officers themselves.]

There was also the issue of Buczek’s killers, all of whom had fled to their native Dominican Republic. Back in June, the man who’d shot Buczek, Daniel Mirambeaux, died under disputed circumstances in the custody of Dominican police— just as he was to be extradited to face murder charges in Manhattan.

That Mirambeux’s two accomplices remained beyond the law couldn’t be forgotten, however. Michael’s father, Ted Buczek— a World War 2 veteran affectionately known as “Mr. B.”—made sure of that, continually lobbying authorities to pressure the Dominican Republic to have the men arrested and brought to trial. Finally, it happened, and in 2003, Pablo Almonte and Jose Fernandez, were each convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

In 1988, the year of the officers’ deaths, New York City had seen 2,246 murders. In 2003, that number had been reduced to 934. The number of homicides for the past two years is under 500 [418 in 2022, down from 481 in 2021].

**

At the corner of Broadway and 185th street, is the playground of P.S. 48, which today bears the name Michael J. Buczek Elementary School. This morning, while its largely Hispanic student body was still in class, the playground served as the warm-up area for the plaid kilt-clad bagpipers of NYPD Emerald Society whose powerful keening would provide the soundtrack for the opening parade.

Nearby, numerous on duty police and gray-haired retired ex-cops greeted each other warmly. Inspector Tommy Kavanagh, wearing a white shirt emblazoned NYPD Counterterrorism, was a visible reminder of a department on high alert following the recent Hamas terror attack on Israel. Although police attendance was down this year, with many officers on security details elsewhere, the turnout on this pleasantly warm fall morning was still in respectable hundreds.

Beginning around 10:30 AM, the procession included pipers, color guard, mounted police, other cops walking in dress blue uniforms, members of the Buczek and Hoban families, students from P.S. 48 and others. The route went up Broadway to 183rd Street, ascended to Wadsworth Avenue, where a FDNY contingent and students from St. Elizabeth School were waiting, and continued to 187th Street.

At the parade’s conclusion, which included a NYPD helicopter fly-by, everyone filed into the sanctuary of St. Elizabeth and seated themselves in its pews.

Presiding over the morning’s mass was Bishop Edmund Whalen, substituting for its long-time celebrant, Bishop Gerald Walsh, who was too ill to attend.

In addition to well sung hymns, accompanied by piano or organ, the ceremony included a number of speeches.

Inspector Aneudy Castillo, Commanding Officer of the 34th Precinct since July 2022, praised Hoban and Buczek as officers who demonstrated a “commitment to service, putting themselves in harm’s way to ensure our safety and their belief that justice should prevail...We owe them a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay.”

Bishop Whalen’s eloquent homily, based on the Gospel of St. Luke, concerned “the practical healing of God’s presence.” Noting that Hoban and Buczek “are living among us still,” Whalen urged those present to show compassion for the suffering and “take the risk for standing up for what’s right.”

Mary Jo Buczek, Michael’s sister, addressing her remarks to the students of P.S. 48 and St. Elizabeth, echoed this theme. “It’s easy to be mean or cruel,” she said, “It takes strength to be kind”—a greater strength than that of the tough guy or bully. She continued, “Be kind to police officers, their job is a difficult one and it gets harder each passing day.”

Martin Hoban, Christopher’s brother, recalled the fateful night 35 years earlier when two families—previously unknown to each other—shared their devastating news. “You didn’t have call waiting, you had to burst through as an emergency, the wire phone... and that’s what my mother did to talk to Mrs. Buczek.”

“Through these tragedies, my life,” Martin continued, “our lives and people in New York’s lives have been enhanced and... as Bishop Whalen said, ‘memories carry us on.’”

Complementing the communion hymn, “I am the Bread of Life,” after the mass, free sandwiches and drinks were served at the St. Elizabeth School auditorium.