I would like to applaud the NYPD for honoring a teen at a ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 22.
The Bronx teen known as “Junior,” whose name was Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, was murdered in a case of mistaken ID by suspected members of the Trinitarios street gang at a Bronx bodega.
Junior was a member of the NYPD Explorers program and would have graduated. This program as reported was to educate and inform young people about careers in law enforcement.
At the ceremony, scholarships were presented in his name. Junior would have graduated with 250 of his peers.
First Deputy NYPD Commissioner Benjamin Tucker said of Junior, “The NYPD legacy is a rich one and is rich in tradition. It’s in that spirit that the department today is posthumously honoring the life of Junior for the way he lived, his dedication to the tenets and the values of the Explorer program while he was with us.”
Now for that I praise the NYPD for honoring Junior who held so much promise and who would have made a good police officer. He would have I believe served New York City to the best of his ability, protecting what we all hold most dear with dedication and pride.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Mineola, N.Y.
