On a late summer day in 1984, Irma Fran Lozada, a 25-year-old New York City Transit Police Officer, was patrolling the BMT Canarsie Line in Brooklyn. Of Puerto Rican descent, she was working in plainclothes with her partner when they witnessed a man snatch a necklace from a rider at the Wilson Avenue station in Bushwick. The officers immediately gave chase, but in the ensuing pursuit, Lozada became separated from her partner as she followed the suspect, 19-year-old Darryl Jeter, into a
desolate, weed-filled vacant lot.
Tragically, within that abandoned lot at the intersection of Central Avenue and Chauncey Street, a struggle ensued. Jeter managed to gain control of Officer Lozada's service weapon. Despite her reported pleas for her life, he shot her twice in the head. Her body was discovered three hours later, marking a grim moment in the city's history as she became the first female police officer in New York City to be killed in the line of duty.
The suspect, Darryl Jeter, was later apprehended. He was subsequently convicted of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon for the senseless killing of Officer Lozada. A court sentenced him to a term of 32 and a half years to life in prison. After serving more than three decades behind bars, Jeter was released on parole in December 2021.
