One of Riverdale’s finest killed in upstate cycle crash

A nine-year veteran of the New York Police Department died over the weekend after he crashed his motorcycle just down the street from his Central Valley home.

Officer Brian Baek served in the 50th Precinct for all but one year of his NYPD career, according to Det. Mindy Ramos of the precinct’s community affairs division. He typically worked the midnight shift. 

A native of Rockland County, the 31-year-old Baek was riding his motorcycle on his day off last Friday, according to the precinct’s deputy inspector Terence O’Toole, when the accident happened, taking his life. 

“Friday was a beautiful day,” O’Toole said. 

“Lot of people out. I don’t know what else could’ve happened, what made him have an accident.”

Baek just married his wife Jennifer nearly a year ago. She survives, as do his parents Anthony and Chinhee Baek, his older brother Eugene and niece Thea, according to an obituary. 

Central Valley is a small hamlet in Orange County, about 50 miles northwest of Riverdale.