A plaque was unveiled at the 40th Precinct in Mott Haven on March 6thto honor Officer Daniel Enchautegui, who was killed trying to stop a burglary near his Pelham Bay home in December 2005.
Enchautegui, who was 28 at the time, called 911 after returning home and hearing breaking glass from a nearby house, then grabbed his off-duty revolver and headed to the scene. He was returning from a late shift at the precinct on Alexander Ave.
Enchautegui identified himself to the burglars as a police officer and ordered them to stop, but instead one of the two men shot him in the chest with a .357 magnum. Enchautegui returned fire, wounding the burglars, before falling to his death in the snow.
His killer, Steven Armento, is serving a life sentence.
John “Jack” Nicholson, who was commanding officer of the 40th Precinct when Enchautegui served, remembered the 6’3, 260 lb. officer as quiet and unassuming.
“He was a man you noticed by his smile, and by the decency he showed other people,” Nicholson recalled, adding he was traveling away from the precinct when he heard the news of the young officer’s death.
“It’s like the wind is knocked out of you, and it all just comes back,” he said.
Enchautegui’s parents, who have both died since the 2005 slaying of their son, had a home on Southern Boulevard around 149th St.
“It was home for him,” said Enchautegui’s sister Yolanda Rosa of her brother’s time served at the Mott Haven station house.
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