An NYPD lieutenant assigned to the 112th Precinct died on July 4 from injuries suffered in Afghanistan while serving with the National Guard.The Department of Defense on Monday announced that Lt. Daniel Farkas, 42, of Fort Greene, Brooklyn died from injuries suffered from a non-hostile incident in Camp Phoenix, Kabul, Afghanistan. He was a 20-year veteran of the NYPD assigned to the Forest Hills-based precinct.
The incident is currently under investigation, according to the DOD. He joined the National Guard in 1992 and was assigned to the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team based out of Syracuse.
He is reportedly survived by his mother, who he lived with along with two sisters and two nieces. His family declined to speak with reporters, but an officer with the 112th Precinct described Farkas as an “extraordinary” person who was “very-well liked by his peers and his subordinates,” according to the Daily News.
Farkas was honored several times during his law enforcement career, including for helping arrest an Elmhurst man charged with setting a series of fires in Middle Village, Maspeth and Rego Park and for helping a federal marshal subduing a rowdy airline passenger in 2003.
The announcement comes just weeks after the death of another local National Guardsman, Sgt. Andrew Seabrooks of South Ozone Park, who was killed in Kandahar City, Afghanistan from wounds suffered when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb.
The deaths come at a time when casualties of American troops in Afghanistan have increased as forces battle the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
