Father and Son Saved by Bulletproof Vests

Two members of the NYPD—a father and son—both found themselves spared by bulletproof vests after years apart in service.

Andrew Yurkiw became part of the NYPD in 2012, following his father, Paul Yurkiw, who began his career on the force in 1982.

The younger Yurkiw donned the NYPD uniform much like his father, but he never truly expected that a bulletproof vest would prove to be life-saving, too.

“Lightning never strikes the same place twice,” the 39-year-old Andrew remarked, reflecting on the circumstances.

Back in June 1989, around 1:30 a.m., Paul Yurkiw stopped to help what he thought was a stranded vehicle on a service road near the Van Wyk Expressway.

When he approached, the driver got out of his car as well.

Just as he was about to ask if he needed assistance, everything changed.

“He pulled a .38 caliber Taurus revolver and shot me three times at point-blank range,” Paul recalled.

The bullets bounced off his vest, and Paul noted, “We destroyed eight out of ten layers of Kevlar.”

Still, in the chaos, the two men ended up struggling on the road, but the shooter managed to escape before being caught later.

Paul rarely wore a vest, but he mentioned, “During the second half of my shift it gets a bit chilly, so I put one on to keep warm.”

“It worked to my advantage,” he added with a slight laugh.

The shooter, Sean Boyd, was convicted of attempted murder and paroled after thirty years, in 2020.

While Paul sustained some bruises, it was a greater tragedy 27 years later when Andrew, working in a crime-fighting unit in Brooklyn, faced a similar fate.

In a shootout on Lexington Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant at around 4 a.m. on February 20, 2016, Andrew found himself exchanging gunfire when someone pointed a weapon at him from a passing car.

As police pursued the suspect’s vehicle, Andrew described, “I jumped out of the back seat. We exchanged gunfire.”

There were other officers present who also returned fire.

Feeling overwhelmed, Andrew said, “I thought I was being hit.” He noted that his fingers had blood on them, indicating a wound.

Despite his fear, he found there was no hole in his clothing, just a deep cut where the impact had occurred.

Paul, who also has a family history with the force, becomes emotional recalling his son’s ordeal.

“I received a call while he was being taken to the hospital. At first, I thought he’d been in a car accident,” he reflected, tears evident in his eyes. “I knew he was doing a great job.”

Andrew, now a father of two, empathized with the pain his mother had to endure.

“She had to go through it again,” he said. “He called my mom to say he’d been shot, and then I had to do the same.”