A Upper East Side doorman who was killed in a head-on collision with an off-duty NYPD sergeant driving the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in Westchester County had often dreamed of becoming a city cop, relatives said.
Manuel Boitel, 61, was returning home from his job at the St. Tropez luxury condominium on East 64th St. near First Ave. at around 11:40 p.m. on Jan. 22 when his Toyota was rammed head-on by a wrong-way driver operating a 2021 Infiniti.
Boitel was rushed to Westchester Medical Center, where he died.
“The irony is that he regularly donated to funds supporting police officers, as he always dreamed of becoming one himself,” family members said of Boitel in a GoFundMe post.
“He was always the first to help others, often putting the needs of those around him before his own,” his niece Ismenia Mejia Cabrera wrote on the fundraiser, which by Saturday afternoon had raised more than $57,000 for Boitel’s funeral expenses and household bills.
Boitel’s “sudden passing has left a huge void in our family, not only emotionally but also financially,” Cabrera wrote. “He was the main provider and head of the household.”
The Infiniti was driven by Sgt. Tiffany Howell, who survived the crash. Howell, 47, was off duty and traveling south in the northbound lanes on the parkway in Mount Pleasant when she rammed Boitel, state police said.
Sgt. Tiffany Howell, pictured, was off duty and traveling south in the northbound lanes on the Taconic Parkway in Mount Pleasant when her 2021 Infiniti slammed head-on into a 2024 Toyota operated by Manuel Boitel of Peekskill, N.Y. (NYPD)
“Beyond the obvious grief, there’s a deep and painful irony here,” family attorney Jonathan Roberts told the Daily News. “Manny had enormous respect for law enforcement and even dreamed of becoming an officer himself.”
“Knowing that the driver was a police officer makes this loss even harder for the family, but it also strengthens their belief that this case deserves a full, fair and transparent investigation,” Roberts said.
Boitel, a father of two, had been married for 42 years and lived in Peekskill.
According to CBS News, Boitel’s wife noticed that her husband’s GPS tracker seemed stuck in the same spot on the Taconic State Parkway for more than an hour. Their sons drove to the location, saw the wreckage and recognized their father’s car.
Boitel had worked at the luxury condo building, greeting residents coming into the lobby, for more than three decades, his heartbroken son Marvin Boitel told The News.
“We went to where he worked. We went to clean out his locker and the amount of support from the tenants and workers there, we were astounded,” he said. “They set up a memorial at the desk he was in charge of. Seeing that really drove home how much of an impact my father had, not only with his family but the people he worked with.”
“They came up to us and said anything we need that they are a phone call away and that my father was amazing when he was at work,” he added.
Howell had just left a “Holy Smoke 2026” cigar social at Mom’s Cigar Warehouse in Scarsdale, which featured an open bar, buffet-style dinner and premium cigars, when she somehow drove up an exit ramp onto the Taconic Expressway and began driving the wrong direction on the highway.
As a member of the NYPD’s Holy Name Society, she helped organize the cigar social. The party was about 10 miles from the site of the fatal crash.
A landscape view of the Taconic Parkway, looking southbound, as it winds its way through the rural landscape between the Hudson River Valley and the Catskills in 2023. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
Howell is an 18-year veteran of the NYPD. Last July, she was assigned to the Juvenile Strategies Unit, which is part of the NYPD’s Office of Crime Control Strategies. She lives in Warwick, N.Y., nearly 50 miles from where the crash took place.
The NYPD has since stripped her of her gun and shield and placed her on modified assignment, officials said.
Howell applied for a vested separation retirement with the NYPD’s pension fund on Tuesday, according an internal document shared with the Daily News. She’s expected to retire in late February, even though she has two more years before she can collect her full pension.
The New York State Police and the state Attorney General’s Office are investigating the crash, but Howell has so not far been charged.
Roberts said the decision to charge Howell “rests with the attorney general.”
“What we do know is that a life was lost, the facts are serious and the family is waiting for clarity,” the attorney said. “They hope decisions will be made promptly and transparently.”
Marvin Boitel remembered his dad as the mentor who “helped me become the man I am today.”
“He was a jack of all trades,” Boitel’s son said. “He helped me learn maintenance stuff. He knew how to fix anything and if he didn’t he would find a way to figure it out.”
“Anytime I’m fixing stuff around the house I feel closer to him because he taught me how to do it,” he added. “As a father, (he was) super, super caring. It doesn’t matter what time we needed to talk, it doesn’t matter where he was, whether at work or just coming home from work. If something was bothering my brother or me, he would be there, rush home from work to help us.”
“He was an amazing, amazing father,” he said.
Anyone with information on the crash is asked to contact the New York State Police Hawthorne Bureau of Criminal Investigation at (914) 742-6057.
With Leonard Greene and Rocco Parascandola