Buczek-Hoban Mass Honors Two NYPD Cops Killed on Same Night in 1988 on UWS

For 37 years, they have come to Washington Heights to honor the memory of two NYPD heroes. They are the friends, family, colleagues of police officers Michael J. Buczek and Christopher Hoban—two young cops from two different Manhattan commands, unknown to each other in life and yet forever entwined for having both been killed on the same tragic night four decades ago.

This year, their joint annual memorial mass was held on Friday, Oct. 17, at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Elizabeth at Wadsworth Avenue and West 187th Street. Unlike recent Buczek-Hoban masses, this year’s event was held a day prior to its calendar anniversary of Oct. 18.

Back on that Tuesday in 1988, while many people were looking forward to World Series Game 5 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland A’s, Christoper Hoban, 26, of the Manhattan North Narcotics Unit, was part of an undercover buy-and-bust operation at 19 W. 105th St., just off Central Park West.

When Hoban and his partner, Michael Jermyn, declined to sample the cocaine they were offered, one drug dealer shouted “Policia! Policia!” while another named Bienvenido Castillo held a gun to Hoban’s head. In the ensuing shootout, both Hoban and one of the drug dealers were killed, while Castillo escaped.

At 7:11 p.m., code 10-13, officer needs assistance, went out over NYPD radios. Hoban was rushed to St. Luke’s Medical Center where he died.

Hours later, Officers Michael Buczek, 24, and Joseph Barbato, both of the 34th Precinct, were responding to a 911 call: A woman at 580 W. 161st St., at Broadway, was having trouble breathing. When they got there, the woman was feeling better, and soon an ambulance arrived. As the cops were leaving, Buczek noticed three suspicious-looking men getting off the building’s elevator.

Following the trio onto West 161st Street, Buczek apprehended one, who dropped the bag he was holding, withdrew a 9mm pistol, shot Buczek in the chest, and ran. Barbato fired four times in return, wounding the gunman, who nonetheless escaped with his two accomplices. At 9:45 p.m., another 10-13 went out.

The bag that Buczek’s killer had been carrying contained cocaine—stolen from drug dealers inside the woman’s building.

Buzcek was rushed to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, where he soon died.

Four days later, on Oct. 22, an immense dual funeral was held at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the Hoban family’s parish in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. An estimated 12,000 police officers filled the surrounding streets to honor their fallen comrades.

Three weeks later, Bienvenido Castillo was arrested in Puerto Rico and subsequently convicted of murder and drug trafficking.

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The first memorial mass for officers Hoban and Buczek was held at St. Elizabeth on Oct. 18, 1989.

The previous June, the man who shot Buczek, Daniel Mirambeaux, was himself killed while being extradited from the Dominican Republic. It would take over a decade for Mirambeaux’s two accomplices to also be extradited and tried. Finally, in 2003, Pablo Almonte and Jose Fernandez were each convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life.

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Though born in sorrow, the Buczek-Hoban mass is a source of great strength—a reminder the bad guys didn’t win.

And so first a parade, beginning at 10:30 a.m. outside Public School 48—the Michael J. Buczek Elementary School—at Broadway and 185th Street.

Inlcuded in the line of march were two NYPD Mounted Unit officers; a couple of motorcycle cops; the NYPD Emerald Society pipers and drummers; two buggies carrying the Buczek and Hoban familes; representatives of various police fraternal organizations; and a Patrol Borough Queens North busload of Police Academy recruits, looking sharp in matching windbreakers.

The parade proceeded south, passing the 34th Precinct before turning left at West 183rd Street for the steep climb to Wadsworth Avenue.

Turning north at Wadsworth, the parade passed FDNY Tower Ladder 45 —“The Might of the Heights”—before ending outside the church.

The celebrant of this year’s mass was the NYPD chaplain, Father Carlos Limongi. Born in Ecuador, Limongi has been the pastor for Holy Name of Jesus–St. Gregory the Great on the Upper West Side since July 2025.

PBA President Patrick Hendry spoke next, saying, “In my 32 years as a police officer, one of the most important things I was taught when I came up in the department was to always have each other’s back, to be there for fellow police officers and their families, no matter what the situation, because at the end of the day we’re all one family.”

If not a traditionally polished speaker, 34th Precinct Commanding Officer, Inspector John Portalatin, was a sincere and effective one, telling everyone that both he personally and the “3-4” were there for them—come by anytime.

Mary Jo Buczek, Michael’s sister, as she has in years past, raised a topical, ethical issue for those present—especially the children of P.S. 48 and St. Elizabeth—to consider in the context of police sacrifice. This year it was Peace in the Middle East.

Marty Hoban, Christopher’s brother, movingly spoke of his father’s insurmountable grief, and how he blamed himself—wrongly—for the fate of his son.

Despite this, the Hoban Memorial 5-Mile Run, held each September in Bay Ridge, to raise scholarship money for Christopher’s alma mater, Xaverian High School, exemplifies the family’s strength and generosity.

Similary inspiring was the unmissable presence of the tall man in dress blues, Sergeant Johnny Moynihan, a Straus News “WESTY” Award winner who for three decades kept the legacy of his 34th Precinct friend alive by running Washington Heights’s Michael Buczek Little League. In doing so, Moynihan also became a virtual recruiting arm of the NYPD Hispanic Society, with dozens of his former players becoming cops themselves.

After the mass, an NYPD helicopter did a number of fly-bys over Wadsworth Avenue. Following this, many group photos were taken, and then hundreds of cops ate a catered lunch in the St. Elizabeth gym.