Police Officer Brian C. Mulkeen joined the force on January 9, 2013. First assigned to the 48th Precinct, he was later transferred to Patrol Borough Bronx. After six years on the force, and while assigned to PBBX, on September 29, 2019, Mulkeen was part of a plainclothes Anti-Crime Unit on patrol combating drug gang activity that included a recent shooting at the Edenwald Houses, a NYCHA complex, in The Bronx.
Several Officers observed a suspicious male in the rear of one of the buildings. Three of the Officers exited their patrol car to question the man, but he saw them and fled on foot. At approximately 12:30 a.m., Mulkeen pursued the 27-year-old subject, Antonio Williams, who was armed. When Mulkeen caught Williams, and as they wrestled on the ground, Mulkeen saw the perp reach for his gun. He yelled to responding fellow Officers. Mulkeen pulled his own weapon and got off five shots. But responding plainclothes Officers opened fire, hitting Mulkeen in the head and torso. They rushed him to Jacobi Medical Center where he died from his wounds. The perpetrator was also shot and killed in the melee.
Mulkeen was 33 years old, an impressive 6 feet, four inches tall, and had already made approximately 270 arrests, many for serious gun-related offenses. He had earned five medals for Police Excellence. While a captain of Fordham’s Track and Field Team, he graduated the University’s Gabelli School of Business in 2008, with a bachelor’s degree. He was working at Merrill Lynch in New York in the lucrative world of financial advisors when he left to pursue his desired career in public service. He was described as cheerful and always helpful, and loved to play guitar and sing, and would perform in front of a crowd of strangers at any time. At his funeral on October 4, 2019, Mulkeen was promoted posthumously by Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill to Detective First Grade with shield number 9004. He was survived by his parents, sister, brother, and his girlfriend, a fellow NYPD Bronx Police Officer.
On July 1, 2021, the Monroe Police Department dedicated a stunning German Shepherd dog as K-9 “Keen” in Det. Mulkeen’s honor. On July 27, 2021, the NYPD did the same and debuted K-9 “Mulk” in Mulkeen’s memory. And, on Medal Day, October 29, 2021, Det. Mulkeen was posthumously awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor. Det. First Grade Brian C. Mulkeen is buried at Ascension Cemetery in Airmont, New York.
Click on the link below to read Det. Mulkeen’s eulogy from Spring 3100, Volume 82, Issue 1, 2, 3, 2019.
