LIs culinary community is rallying for slain Nassau cop as beloved married mom is laid to rest

A beloved Nassau County police officer killed by a suspected drunk driver over the weekend was laid to rest — as  Long Island’s culinary community rallied to help the tough-but-loving married mom’s family.“She just made a homicide arrest a little over a month ago, when she kicked the door down and tackled the guy who stabbed somebody,” Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said of fallen cop Patricia Espinosa.“But then she’d go out, and she’d be rescuing two kittens and trying to get somebody to adopt them.”Espinosa, 42 — who was slain by accused drunken motorist Matthew Smith, 20, while driving to work Saturday — was remembered as a mother of a 2-year-old daughter, who was passionate about helping the area’s Hispanic residents including with a prom dress drive.“She came here, she couldn’t speak English, so she learned the language, took the test, became a cop, and then she went to the fifth precinct,” Ryder said of Espinosa, who moved to the US from Ecuador at age at 21.“That’s where she met her now husband, and they had the child together.”“Everybody feels like they want to do something…Her young girl is going to grow up without a mother,” Ryder said.To help Espinosa’s grieving family, restaurateurs have banded together through a “LI Pizza Strong” initiative to unite more than 200 local pizzerias to raise money in a pension-like fund.

It calls on slice shops across America to contribute $5 per pie sold on Feb.25.Meanwhile, supporters have already raised more than $260,000 on GoFundMe to “honor her legacy” and help pay for funeral costs.Espinosa died after Smith crashed his Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck into her Alfa Romeo on Route 347 by the Smith Haven Mall in St.

James around 6 a.m.Saturday.In a tragic twist, her husband, fellow NCPD officer Francisco Malaga, was among the cops who rushed to help at the car crash Saturday— without knowing his wife was the victim.“He stops to help, and he fi...