The widow of an NYPD highway officer who was killed by a cop-hating, drunken driver five years ago is hoping to keep her husband’s legacy alive with a blood drive near the fifth anniversary of his death.
Detective Anastasios Tsakos, a father of two, was killed by boozed up hit-and-run driver Jessica Beauvais on the Long Island Expressway in Queens on April 27, 2021. He was 43.
“I don’t want him to be forgotten, and I’m trying to do good because that’s who my husband was,” said heartbroken Irene Tsakos, who lives in Greenlawn, Long Island and is hosting the blood drive from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the NYPD’s Highway 3 Precinct at 198-15 Grand Central Parkway, Queens, on Tuesday, May 19.
“He always tried to help people, and so I’m trying to do that, even though he’s no longer with us,” she said. “I’m trying to keep his legacy alive. That’s my purpose.”
Her son and daughter – now 8 and 11 respectively – understand that their father was killed in the line of duty while helping people, she said.
“They know that their dad was a hard worker, and he was very optimistic, he was selfless,” she said. “He was a hero. They also know that they miss him, every day.”
Tsakos, a 14-year NYPD veteran who was part of the force’s elite Highway 3 Patrol Unit, was responding to a car accident around 2 a.m. in Fresh Meadows when he was struck head-on by Beauvais’s Volkswagen. She fled but was arrested shortly after the crash, cops said.
She was high on drugs and had a blood alcohol level of .15 percent — nearly twice the legal limit — when she hit him after she boozed it up during an anti-cop rant on a Facebook podcast.
The widow recalled that some of her husband’s happiest moments were when he could help a driver who was stranded on the side of the road.
“He would always come home and tell me about these things,” she said. “It was mostly the help, the service he could provide, that’s what made him the happiest. I know because he would tell me every time.”
She believes her husband would be pleased about the event.
“If we could save a life, that’s what would make my husband very happy,” she said. “He would love it, because that’s who he was. He just wanted to help.”
She continued: “Whether you knew him, or knew of him, or just want to honor first responders, please come donate blood because it directly helps others in need and it celebrates a life of service.”
