Masks, gloves, tears as NYPD mourns commander lost to virus

NEW YORK – Pallbearers donned protective face masks along with their police department dress blues. A man praying near the casket was swaddled in a white Tyvek suit. Others in the sparse crowd outside a New York City funeral home tried to maintain some semblance of social distance.

A prayer service and carryout ceremony Wednesday for NYPD Traffic Section Commander Mohammed Chowdhury had some of the trappings of a typical police funeral mixed with safety measures that have become commonplace as society grapples with coronavirus.

Chowdhury, 54, died Sunday from complications of the disease, the police department said. He is among 31 members of the NYPD who have perished as a result of the virus. The dead include five detectives, a patrol officer and five other members of the traffic enforcement unit.

Chowdhury worked in traffic enforcement in Brooklyn and “was revered by members” of the department’s transportation bureau, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a tweet. He died just two weeks shy of his 30th anniversary of joining the police department.