{"id":315184,"date":"2025-10-19T04:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T04:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/315184\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T04:58:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T04:58:19","slug":"single-mom-from-bushwick-answers-newspaper-ad-becomes-matriarch-of-nypd-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/315184\/","title":{"rendered":"Single mom from Bushwick answers newspaper ad, becomes matriarch of NYPD family"},"content":{"rendered":"

A casual glance at a newspaper changed the life of not only a single Brooklyn<\/a> mom, but the lives of her children, as well.<\/p>\n

For Marilyn Ozuna, that casual glance came in 1994. Newly separated and facing a divorce, the Puerto Rican-born single mother of four was thumbing through the news in El Diario when she came across an ad to join the NYPD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was an epiphany laid out in newspaper ink.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to myself, \u2018This is it. This is where I\u2019m going to work,’\u201d she recalled, sitting in the muster room of the 81st Precinct stationhouse<\/a> in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where she spent the first decade of her 25-year career. \u201c\u2018This is where I\u2019m going to show my children that we can do it. We can do anything.’\u201d<\/p>\n

But, at the time, little did she know that all four of her children would follow her into the NYPD, too.<\/p>\n

Today, Ozuna, 62, is a retired detective. Two of her children, her oldest son, Jorge Ozuna, 37, and daughter Rose Martinez, 43, are NYPD detectives. A third, also named Marilyn Ozuna, is an NYPD cop. Her youngest son, Anthony Phillips, is poised to graduate the Police Academy.<\/p>\n

\"FromDetective Marilyn Ozuna (center) with her daughters, Marilyn (left) and Rose, while the two daughters were in the Police Academy.(Courtesy of Marilyn Ozuna)<\/p>\n

Ozuna said she never pushed her children to be police officers, but the stories she shared at the dinner table in their Bushwick home of the arrests she made and the people she helped clearly sank in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always gave them their own choices, but I would tell them, \u2018You gotta have a plan in life,’\u201d the proud mom said. \u201cI told them that the NYPD is a great place to work, and if I did it, anybody can do it. You could serve the community and help people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ozuna joined the NYPD at 32. Her children were with her in spirit during her time at the Police Academy, one of the most grueling challenges the single mom ever faced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very tough,\u201d she remembered. \u201cI never worked out in my life and suddenly I\u2019m told I had to run a mile and a half every day. But I said to myself, \u2018I have to do this for my children.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest obstacle was on the obstacle course \u2014 a 5-foot-high wall she had to climb over, she recalled.<\/p>\n

\"RetiredRetired Detective Marilyn Ozuna, 62, center left, with three of her four children, Police Cadet Anthony Philips, 24, left, Police Officer Marilyn G. Ozuna, 34, right, and Detective Rose Martinez, 43, center right, outside of the 81st Precinct in Brooklyn, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (Shawn Inglima\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t graduate unless you get over that wall,\u201d she remembered. \u201cBut my classmates would support me. They would say, \u2018Do it for your children. They\u2019re on the other side of that wall.\u2019 And I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the day she graduated, Ozuna had an inkling Jorge was going to be a cop.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll four of my children were there,\u201d she remembered. \u201cIt was such an honor for me. I wanted to instill something in them and give them something that would stay with them through their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the ceremony, Jorge came up and asked to wear her police hat.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Give me your hat!’\u201d she said. \u201cI let him wear the hat and he said, \u2018I\u2019m going to be a police officer.\u2019 And 20 years later, he graduated the academy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And an NYPD legacy family was born.<\/p>\n

Rose, Ozuna\u2019s oldest, was 12 when her mother decided to join the academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I had no concept of what she was doing,\u201d Rose recalled. \u201cI was like \u2018You\u2019re going to go through what?\u2019 And then she went through and made it and I was like, \u2018You really did it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust watching her being able to do it, it showed me that women can do anything if they put mind to it,\u201d Rose said. \u201cShe juggled being a full-time mother of four while in the academy, and if she can do it, it was something I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose joined the Police Academy in 2015 after a stint as a 911 dispatcher. Joining with her was her younger sister Marilyn, who was a school safety officer before becoming a cop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wall is still there,\u201d Marilyn joked about her own time in the academy. \u201cWe had the bruises to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Det.Det. Jorge Ozuna with mother Marilyn.<\/p>\n

Marilyn is now a cop in Harlem. Rose is assigned to the department\u2019s Information Technology Bureau. Jorge works at the department\u2019s Real Time Crime Center.<\/p>\n

Anthony, who was also a school safety officer, is finishing up his academy coursework. Being a cop is something he\u2019s wanted to do since high school, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually told my mom the day I graduated that by age 23 I was going to be a police officer,\u201d he said. \u201cEven when I worked for school safety, sometimes I would come into the local precinct on a job and I saw what was going on, and I definitely saw myself being a cop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phillips, who just turned 24, is weeks away from graduating. Whenever he talks about his family, his classmates are stunned that she could raise four children while going through the academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey think she\u2019s Superwoman,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

The Ozuna family line in the NYPD is expected to continue after Anthony graduates. Rose\u2019s son, who is 22, is considering joining, she said.<\/p>\n

Ozuna was born in Puerto Rico and came to New York at age 5. Growing up in Bushwick, her parents only spoke Spanish at home.<\/p>\n

Looking back at Hispanic Heritage Month, which just ended this week, Ozuna said her heritage was an asset during her time as a cop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always kept to our heritage and I would always tell my children to keep learning Spanish,\u201d she said. \u201cEspecially on this job, the community can relate to you better if they can communicate with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can communicate with someone in their language, it gives them a sense of security. They confide in you better,\u201d her daughter Marilyn said.<\/p>\n

Marilyn Ozuna\u2019s story of raising four kids as a single mom also helped out on the job, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I would go to a job and would have to counsel single parents who think they can\u2019t do this or can\u2019t do that, I say to them, \u2018Let me tell you a little story,’\u201d she said with a bright smile across her face. \u201cI tell them, \u2018I have four kids and I can do this. So you can do anything.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to leave people in a better place from where I found them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 18, 2025 at 5:12 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A casual glance at a newspaper changed the life of not only a single Brooklyn mom, but the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":315185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,2451,3059,5295,1370,728,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5293,5321,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-315184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-county","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-nyc-crime","23":"tag-sub-county-region","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-united-states-of-america","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115399066122596646","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}