NYPD recruits take the oath of police officer at a ceremony on March 9
One of the newest members of the NYPD was inspired to join the department after a retired Finest died a hero whileNewly minted Officer Justin Acevedo, 23 — one of 968 recruits who graduated from the Police Academy on Monday — told The Post he is alive today thanks to his football coach, retired Detective Jose Rosario, who guided him to safety in the choppy waters off Playa de Jobos in 2015 “I feel like be very proud of me,” said Acevedo, who was 11 when Rosario saved his life.
NYPD Police Officer Justin Acevedo at his police academy graduation ceremony on March 9, 2026, with Inez and Noah Rosario — the widow and son of the cop who saved his life in 2015.Asked what he might have told Rosario if the retired detective were still alive, the young cop replied, “I would just thank him for what he did for me and my family for saving my life. NYPD, PBA strike deal to keep 31 rookie cops deemed unfit during hiring process on the force: ‘Fair, down the middle compromise’Kidnapping victim who joined the NYPD reunited with cops who saved him from pervert “Now I’m in this role as a police officer, and it gives me to share my experience and help others,” said Acevedo, who lives upstate.Jose Rosario died after he jumped into the water at Playa de Jobos, Puerto Rico, to save Acevedo from drowning.He took up football coaching after retirement and was vacationing with his young players and their families when he jumped into action to keep the 11-year-old Acevedo from drifting off in the fierce rip tide. “The wave started hitting me, and was near me….and he picked me up to the reef, and we stood there for a couple minutes. We caught our breath,” Acevedo recalled. “And then, , ‘OK, you got to swim back to the beach now,’ so he kind of … threw me into the water, like pushed me. “And then I just kept swimming. I kept looking, and he was still there. And then when I got to the beach, I turned around, and I couldn’t see him no more.”Then-Commissioner William Bratton and Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven Poulin present Inez and Noah with the Gold Lifesaving Award for Jose Rosario on July 18, 2016.“Justin watched as members of the NYPD stood beside Detective Rosario’s family,” Tisch told the assembly of new cops gathered at the Police Academy. “He saw the way that this department honors those who serve and supports those they leave behind.Tisch also recognized new Officer Anthony Cantore, 26, who paused his journey toward entering the NYPD a few years ago to donate a kidney to his retired lieutenant father, Thomas Cantore — granting his Staten Island dad “a second chance at life” through an “act of love and selflessness. “Before he could begin his own career, he faced a different challenge,” Tisch told the sea of blue. “His father needed a kidney transplant. Anthony stepped forward to donate a kidney and save his father’s life. “That decision delayed his own journey into this department, but it gave his father a second chance at life,” she said. “Now because of that act of love and selflessness, his father … is here today to watch him graduate.”Acevedo told The Post he believes Rosario would be proud of him for following in his footsteps at the NYPD.Anthony — whose grandfather also was an NYPD detective and uncle a sergeant — longed to “join the police department as a third-generation officer,” he told The Post. Anthony said he initially took the test to enter the ranks in 2021 but soon needed to turn his focus to his dad, who suffered from kidney disease and began dialysis in September of 2022.But a year later, Anthony — whose O-negative blood type made him a universal donor — donated the much-needed organ to his dad. “I just want to say that he stepped up. I didn’t ask him. He stepped up,” said the elder Cantore, who joined the NYPD in July of 1989 and retired in June of 2008, last assigned to his own borough’s 120th Precinct. “He saw what I was going through for the last year,” he said. “He was ready to do it, and he was able to do it. There’s a lot involved, and that’s what took a while. “But it was his decision when it was all said and done. I’m very proud of him. I’m happy to be here. I’m so happy to see him graduate from the Police Department.” The newest Cantore on the force said he is “just grateful for the opportunity to go through this process, that my dad is fine, he’s able to … do everything that anybody else can. “I be an inspiration for somebody else, if they’re thinking about doing it, and they can learn about what I went through with my dad.”Real estate brokers-to-the-stars convicted of sex trafficking after twisted testimony describing rapes, drugging2.7KNordstrom’s Beauty Savings Event is full of stars’ makeup and skincare staplesThe Pussycat Dolls are reuniting for a world tour — and Nicole Scherzinger is ‘definitely’ inA prank-gone-wrong killed high school teacher Jason Hughes: All the heartbreaking details NYPD Police Officer Justin Acevedo at his police academy graduation ceremony on March 9, 2026, with Inez and Noah Rosario — the widow and son of the cop who saved his life in 2015.Jose Rosario died after he jumped into the water at Playa de Jobos, Puerto Rico, to save Acevedo from drowning.Then-Commissioner William Bratton and Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven Poulin present Inez and Noah with the Gold Lifesaving Award for Jose Rosario on July 18, 2016.Acevedo told The Post he believes Rosario would be proud of him for following in his footsteps at the NYPD.
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