Raymond C. Abear

Detective Raymond Abear died from complications as the result of contracting COVID-19 in a presumed exposure while on duty.

Detective Abear had served with the New York City Police Department for 20 years and was assigned to the Queens Special Victims Squad.

Raymond C. Abear was a lifelong resident of Queens. He joined the New York City Police Department in July 2001 and became a detective with the Queens Special Victims Squad, carrying shield 3740. His work took him to the bedsides of crime victims in Queens hospitals, and he kept making those visits as COVID-19 filled the borough's emergency rooms in the spring of 2020. Colleagues remembered him as a man who would always go out of his way for others.

He contracted the virus during a presumed exposure on duty and died of its complications on 13 April 2020, at the age of 43. He was survived by his wife and their two children, Jackson, who was two, and Stella, who was four months old. The corner of 164th Place and Goethals Avenue in Hillcrest, Queens, now bears his name.