Bedford Park Officer Laid to Rest By DAVID GREENE
Three days earlier, Eric Concepcion, 29, a native Bronxite and officer with the 42nd Precinct, was killed in a collision with an off-duty volunteer fireman while riding his motorcycle along the West Side Highway. Concepcion, a five-year police veteran, once worked as a counselor at the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center. It was there that he met his future wife, fellow summer day-camp counselor Melissa Vicens. They had two young daughters together.
After the funeral, Vicens recalled Concepcion’s love for his motorcycle. “I wasn't too keen about it,” she said, “but I had no choice, it’s what he wanted to do." Family friend Victoria King, 27, summed up the tragedy. “[Vicens] had the perfect life, they both worked for the city…and now her whole world is shattered,” King said. Robert Derian, 23, of Saddle River, NJ, was driving his
utility Ululy Martinez, a cousin of the victim and the current deputy chief of staff to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, said that a trust fund had been established for the family. Those wishing to make a donation should send it to: Melissa Vicens, c/o The Patrolmans Benevolent Association of the City of New York, 40 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10038.
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A Bronx police officer who lived in Bedford Park was laid to rest
after a tearful farewell at St. Brendan’s Church on Thursday, Aug. 17.
“He loved everything about his job and loved helping
people,” said Vicens, who is a teacher at PS 56 on East 207th Street in
Norwood. “He was a good man,"
vehicle after a night of drinking in Manhattan, when he struck and
ran over Concepcion on the Henry Hudson Parkway on Aug. 14. Derian has been
charged with second-degree manslaughter, vehicular homicide, driving under
the influence and unauthorized use of emergency lights.