Patrick J. Frezza was born in the City of Yonkers on July 11, 1961. He attended local public schools and graduated from Roosevelt High School. After a few miscellaneous jobs Pat was hired as a Westchester County Corrections Officer in the County Jail where he worked for a number of years. But he really wanted to be a police officer. Pat Frezza was appointed to the Yonkers Police Department on January 2, 1987 and following recruit training was assigned to patrol duty in the 4th precinct. At one point while in the 4th pct. Pat resigned from the YPD to be appointed a police officer in the Tuckahoe Police Dept. It wasn't long before he realized he had made a mistake and requested, and was granted, re-reinstatement to the Yonkers PD. After returning to the YPD he was accepted to be trained as a K-9 dog handler and his dog was named "Bear." He was assigned to the K-9 Unit and worked out of Special Operations Div. where he would earn a reputation as a good street cop by making many excellent arrests. But that's not all that he did. Pat always kept himself in great physical condition and on Feb 15, 2001 he competed in the first Annual Yonkers Police & Fire Toughman Boxing Show. And he won his fight that night. Being assigned to SOD he worked alongside the Emergency Service Personnel and as such became cross trained and certified to also work in ESU when required to. Following the deadly terrorist air attacks on September 11, 2001 which destroyed and collapsed the 110 story World Trade Center buildings in NYC and killed nearly 3000 people, PO Frezza was part of a YPD-ESU rescue team detail sent to the scene. For over a week the team worked nearly non stop digging with their hands and equipment to remove debris in hopes of locating survivors. Though not officially assigned to ESU at that time, due to his previous experience and training in ESU, he and other K-9 officers were allowed to join the rescue team. On December 7, 2001 he competed in the 2nd annual Yonkers Police & Fire Toughman Boxing Competition, sponsored by and held in the PAL building on North Broadway (the old armory) with all proceeds going toward the Yonkers Disaster Relief Fund as a result of the attack on NYC on 9-11-2001.
Once again while Pat was working in the ESU truck as a fill in the following resulted. On May 6, 2003 Frezza was awarded the Dept's Meritorious Service Award for an Act Involving Personal Risk of Life in the intelligent performance of duty, to wit,...... On July 6, 2002 Pat Frezza and his ESU partner Mark Franks came upon a bank robbery in progress on Tuckahoe Road. During the ensuing high speed pursuit into NYC with shots being fired, a confrontation with a bank robbery suspect took place in a lot off the Cross Bx Expressway. Officers Frezza and Franks, along with NYPD officers, pursued the suspect on foot. The result was the suspect was shot and killed. Several people have commented that PO Pat Frezza had absolutely no fear of anything. In fact he would laugh in the most dangerous situations including being shot at. On May 12, 2003 Pat was awarded the Journal News Police Award from September 30, 2002 in Category 1, 1st place; Earned 1 Commendation, 1 Certificate Excellent Police Work, 3 Unit Citations, 1 Journal News 1st place, 1 New York "Shields" Hero of the month award, and the Westchester County Co. EMS Council Meritorious Award. Pat Frezza was on the Sergeants list for promotion and when he was notified to appear for promotion, officer Frezza declined the promotion for reasons known best to him, and remained working in the K-9 Unit, which he loved. Upon his retirement from the YPD on January 11, 2008 he was certified as able to be hired as a part time police officer in Brewster, NY still serving as a K-9 handler. In 2009 it was said that he became very ill but he seemingly recovered. However, in 2019 he had a heart attack, but again seemed to recover OK. Later it was said he suffered a stroke and was under doctors care. He was not getting better and on Oct 3, 2019 it was reported that he had suffered a fatal incident which left him completely unresponsive. Unfortunately, Retired PO Patrick J. Frezza, a resident of Florida, died October 4, 2019. He was 58 years old.
Gathering and Celebration of Life will be held at Whalen & Ball Funeral Home on Tuesday October 22nd from 4-9pm.
Whalen & Ball Funeral Home
168 Park Ave.
Yonkers, N.Y. 10703
(914)965-5488
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