An off-duty NYPD investigator was killed early Friday while travelling home on the Palisades Interstate Parkway in Orange County when his automobile swerved off the road at an exit and collided with a tree, according to officials and sources.
Detective Charles Cato, a 17-year veteran, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle at 6:30 a.m. near Exit 19, close to Bear Mountain State Park, according to authorities.
According to sources, the vehicle drove onto the left shoulder of the exit ramp, colliding with a tree and bursting into flames.
According to authorities, medics brought the seriously injured detective to Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh, where he was pronounced dead at 6:55 a.m.
“Detective Cato had been working tirelessly to investigate shootings.” He was brave and unwavering. The public and the world’s best investigators will miss him,” said Scott Munro, president of the investigators Endowment Association.
Cato has been assigned to the Force Investigation Division since 2019, which conducts extensive investigations into police-related shootings, according to records. He joined the NYPD in July 2007 and was promoted to detective third grade in 2017.
The state police are investigating the crash, according to spokesperson Jennifer Alvarez, who declined further comment.