Slain NYPD highway cop Anastasios Tsakos was struck so violently by an admitted drunk driver that his body was thrown at least 100 feet — his patrol boot blown off his severed leg, a witness told The Post.
The allegedly boozed-up driver, Jessica Beauvais, was speeding so fast early Tuesday, Tsakos didn’t have a chance of jumping out of the way, according to truck driver Dan Miller.
“When the car passed me, I said, ‘Someone is going to die,'” said Miller, 44. “That’s what popped into my mind.”
“It was horrific,” he added. “I just said to myself, ‘This poor cop is just doing his job and he gets killed.'”
Miller said he was driving about 70 feet away from Tsakos around 2 a.m. when he saw Beauvais, 32, barreling toward the 14-year NYPD veteran, who was standing next to his patrol car while directing traffic on the Long Island Expressway.
“When the car flew by me, the driver was swerving, unsure whether to go left or right,” Miller said. “She swerved to the right, just missed the police car, and drilled the cop head-on.”
Tsakos, who was helping divert traffic from an earlier fatal crash, was catapulted 30 to 40 feet into the air, crashing down more than 100 feet away — his severed leg landing another 40 feet away.
Police officers are seen at Springfield Boulevard and Horace Harding Expressway in Queens, Tuesday, April 27, 2021, with a car that struck and killed a highway unit police officer. Robert Mecea“He wasn’t moving,” Miller recalled.
The force knocked both of the 43-year-old officer’s boots off.
Miller said he pulled over and ran to help Tsakos — when the fallen cop’s partner uttered the chilling words that left the trucker downright shaken.
“He has two young kids,” the partner told him, shaking his head.
“That was the gut punch,” Miller said. “It really hit me.”
Other cops responded quickly and secured the scene — and at one point asked him to use his truck to shield Tsakos’ severed leg from being hit by oncoming traffic.
People come to pay respects at the home of Anastasiod Tsakos, an NYPD highway patrol officer who was struck and killed, allegedly by Jessica Beauvais. Stephen YangBeauvais, who is due back in court Friday, is facing 13 charges in the officer’s death, including manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated.
She admitted to police that she was downing vodka in the hours before the fatal collision, sources previously said.
Prosecutors said her blood alcohol level was 0.15 — nearly double the legal limit of 0.08.
Tsakos’ family told The Post Wednesday that a wake will be held for him Monday at St. Paraskivi Greek Orthodox Shrine Church in Greenlawn, Long Island, with his funeral on Tuesday.
Tsakos leaves behind a wife, Irene, and their two children — a daughter, 6, and son, 3.
