An off-duty New York Police Department officer was killed in a car crash in upstate New York on Friday evening, authorities said.
According to New York State Police troopers, two-year veteran trooper Juliana Torciello was driving a 2008 BMW 328i eastbound on County Route 51 between Bluff Lane and Ridge Road in Orange County around 6 p.m. when she “failed to negotiate a downhill right curve.”
Police said the officer’s vehicle veered into oncoming traffic, struck an embankment, became airborne and struck a tree, then flipped over and landed on its roof.
Torciello, 25, suffered blunt force trauma to the head and his body was transported to the Orange County Coroner’s Office.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that the officer’s speed was a factor in the crash, the officer said. An autopsy will determine whether the officer had alcohol in his blood, he said.
The officer, who is based at the 30th Precinct in West Harlem, joined the NYPD in December 2021.
