The most decorated cop in the NYPD’s history has died – decades after he patrolled a notorious part of the Bronx where he earned the reputation as a “one of a kind” leader who could “smell a gun from a block away.”
Legendary Lt. Robert DiMartini, who retired from the NYPD’s Street Crime Unit in 1989, died on June 12 after suffering complications from a stroke, according to friends. He was 80.
“He was a cop’s cop … a top quality leader,” Peter Pranzo, a retired lieutenant who worked with DiMartini, told The Post on Monday, calling his late colleague “a legend in the NYPD.”
DiMartini, who joined the force in 1969, had more than 500 medals at the time of his death, making him “the most decorated officer in NYPD history,” Pranzo said.
“We didn’t put our uniforms on frequently — but when you saw Bobby with all his medals it was something,” Pranzo added.
DiMartini was a plainclothes officer when he mostly served in the 41st precinct in the South Bronx — known as “Fort Apache” for its disturbingly high crime rate — in the 1970s and ’80s.
His fearlessness was only matched by his uncanny ability to find a crime and quickly act.
“Good cops were thinking ahead and that was Bobby. He had a tremendous knowledge of the law,” Pranzo said. “And he knew his surroundings he was so familiar — you drop him in any part of the city — he was a survivor and a worker.”
DiMartini was particularly known for his sixth-sense of pinpointing perps who were carrying illegal guns in the Bronx and other parts of the city.
Pranzo said his colleague “could smell a gun a block away.”
In the mid and late 1980s, Pranzo and DiMartini worked in the street crime unit that focused on the Bronx, but also tackled other parts of the city where they were in plainclothes or were undercover.
DiMartini was the head of the Bronx robbery squad from 1980 to ’85 when his two-man teams that newspapers would call the “Supersquad Six” averaged an incredible 15 arrests and five gun confiscations daily.
DiMartini “has probably taken more guns off the street than any other police officer in the history of policing in America,” Mike Bosak, a retired NYPD sergeant and unofficial historian for the department said back in 2015.
When The Post interviewed him that year, DiMartini had 476 NYPD awards — making him the most decorated cop in the department’s history at the time.
“In his last few years they finally recognized him being the hero that he was,” Pranzo said of the NYPD. “He got more awards the last few years of his life than he ever did on the job.”
His daughter, Liza DiMartini, called her father a “hero” who was widely respected in a tribute she penned earlier this summer.
“Dad was my hero before he was the NYPD hero you all know and love him for. He was so much more than just a police officer,” she wrote on a GoFundMe page.
“I listen to the stories and hear all the memories from people he worked with, people he grew up with, and sometimes, people he was just friends with. Even the people that didn’t agree with him.
“The one thing we all had in common is we loved him and respected him, no matter what his views were, no matter what he did for a living.”
Pranzo described DiMartini’s reputation as “one of a kind.”
“He was a very, very strong family guy. He loved his family like he loved the job, the NYPD – so dedicated,” Pranzo told The Post.
“He was a hero. And you can’t say that about too many people.”
