High-ranking NYPD cop fatally shoots himself one month before he reached mandatory retirement age

A high-ranking NYPD officer fatally shot himself in the head just one month before he was set to retire. 

Deputy Chief Steven Silks, the executive officer of Patrol Borough Queens North, was found dead inside his department-issued car on a quiet road near the 112th Precinct station on Wednesday, police sources say. 

Silks was just weeks away from turning 63, at which point he would face mandatory retirement from the NYPD. 

NYPD Deputy Chief Steven Silks, 62, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Queens on Wednesday. The officer was just one month away from mandatory retirement

A security guard who works at the West Side Tennis Club near where Silks’ car was parked spotted his body at around 6.45pm. 

The deputy was dressed in civilian clothes and the gun was beside him. Responding officers were not immediately aware that he was a police officer. 

Silks was transported to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. 

The 39-year department veteran had reportedly gone to the NYPD pension office on Tuesday to submit his retirement papers.  

‘His family lives out of state. He’s not married. He absolutely lived for the NYPD,’ a fellow cop and friend of Silks told the New York Daily News. 

‘He was admired and loved by everybody he worked with. He was aged out. He’s the kind of guy who would have served until he died of natural causes.’

People who knew Silks have said he had expressed sadness over his upcoming retirement. 

‘It’s terrible that he found himself in that place,’ a Queens detective said at the scene of the apparent suicide. ‘Say a prayer for his family.’ 

Silks had been with the NYPD for 39 years and served as the executive officer of Patrol Borough Queens North. He is pictured left with colleagues at an event in 2013