Families of slain NYPD cops plead to keep killers locked up
George Agosto who fatally shot Officer Thomas Ruotolo in the Bronx in 1984, and Eddie Matos who shoved Officer Anthony Dwyer to his death off a roof in Times Square roof in 1989, could be sprung from prison next month.
The 16-member parole board — ripped by critics as a patronage mill of leftist ideologues and political has-beens — has released 43 cop killers since 2017 after they began giving less weight to the severity of a convict's crimes and more to their age and progress in prison.
7 The families of slain NYPD officers Thomas Ruotolo and Antony Dwyer speak out at the state parole board in Midtown, Manhattan.
Helayne Seidman
7 NYPD officer Thomas Ruotolo was killed by a parolee while investigating a moped theft in the Bronx in 1984.
NYPD
Agosto, 65, who was out on parole for manslaughter when he killed Ruotolo, is serving 40 years to life at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY.
'Personally, I think it's really important to emphasize that the sentence was 40 years to life,' Ruotolo's widow Mary Beth O'Neill told The Post. 'I really believe the 'to life' part matters because some crimes are too severe. They're too violent. They're too intentional to ever risk repeating.'
Ruotolo was responding to a call about a stolen moped in the Bronx that Valentine's Day when Agosto pulled out a revolver and shot him before the cop even said a word.
7 Ruotolo was fatally shot before saying a word while approaching the parolee at a Bronx gas station.
New York Post
7 Marge Dwyer said she'd like to see the convict who killed her son put to death.
Stephen Yang
The parolee, who already had a murder conviction on his rap sheet, then shot Ruotolo's partner and an off-duty officer who happened to be on the scene.
'In his own words, he described himself as a 'non-violent guy,'' the widow said, quoting from what he told the board in his rejected 2023 appeal. 'But how can a man who killed two people and attempted to kill two others be called anything but violent?'
She was also 'chilled to see' that he referred to the murder of her husband as 'a mistake' — wondering what part was the mistake, carrying the gun, using it to steal a moped or shooting her husband.
7 Mary Beth O'Neill (r) believes the man who shot and killed her first husband, Thomas Ruotolo, should remain in prison.
Helayne Seidman
'None of those sound like mistakes to me,' she said. 'They sound like choices, criminal, deliberate, irredeemable choices.'
Matos, 57, is serving a 25-years-to-life at Green Haven Prison in Stormville for killing Dwyer. The officer was responding to an armed robbery at a McDonald's when he chased Matos to the roof and was pushed, cops have said.
'They killed a cop,' Dwyer's mom, Marge, said. 'They should serve the rest of their lives in prison or get the death penalty. We don't have it anymore but if we did I'd be down there to turn the switch myself.'
7 Anthony Dwyer had chased Matos to a roof when he was apparently pushed and fell off the building.
Stephen Yang
7 Matos, 57, is serving a 25-years-to-life at Green Haven Prison but is up for parole.
change.org
Both killers are scheduled to go to the parole board in September. The dates of their hearings aren't released to the public.
PBA President Patrick Hendry went to the board's Midtown office with the families to deliver their victim impact statements Friday.
'Every time they come here, they are forced to reopen their wounds and relive the worst day of their lives,' Hendry said. 'Every time they leave here, they're forced to wait and wonder whether their loved one's killer will be released.'
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