The murderer of a Manhattan police officer had his eighth request for release denied this week, giving the officer’s family peace of mind for at least another year, The Washington Post has learned.
Eddie Matos, who is serving a 25-year to life sentence for the October 1989 killing of Officer Anthony Dwyer, has been denied parole and will be held at the maximum-security Green Haven Correctional Facility in upstate, state officials announced.
“My family and I are so relieved that parole has been denied again and that we can now enjoy a year and a half of peace knowing that Anthony’s killer is in the right place,” Dwyer’s sister, Maureen Brisette, 46, told The Washington Post.
Matos, 56, will be eligible for parole again in September 2025.
Dwyer’s family said they still remember the day they lost their loved one, who served with the Midtown South Police Department for 2 1/2 years and was a Sunday school teacher at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Elmont, Long Island.
At about 3:15 a.m. on Oct. 17, 1989, Matos and three accomplices used a sledgehammer to smash the glass doors of a McDonald’s on Seventh Avenue and West 40th Street and arrested an employee at gunpoint, court documents state.
She taught Sunday school at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Elmont, Long Island. nycpba.org
The maintenance worker ran off and flagged down Dwyer and two other officers from Midtown South who were on patrol, who then saw Matos run to the back of the restaurant and climb a ladder onto the roof, with Dwyer quickly following.
Once on the roof, Matos allegedly pushed the junior officer 25 feet into a vent. Dwyer was trapped there for more than 30 minutes before emergency responders freed the officer from the vent. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:50 a.m.
Matos was captured the next day.
He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced in 1990 to 25 years to life in prison.
of Matos, a convicted murderer of a police officer. Steven Yeung
“We are pleased that a police killer will remain in prison and this hero’s family can have peace of mind for at least another year,” said Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association. “We need all New Yorkers to continue to speak out and urge the Parole Board that a police killer should not be released.”
