QUEENS — Four rookie police officers who were attacked last year by a hatchet-wielding man while patrolling Jamaica Avenue were awarded for their bravery during a ceremony with Vice President Joe Biden.
The officers — Kenneth Healey, Taylor Kraft, Joseph Meeker and Peter Rivera — received the Top Cops Awards presented annually by the National Association of Police Organizations.
NAPO did not immediately return an email seeking comment, but according to its website, the officers were among 31 selected “from hundreds of nominations.”
The awards, distributed in Washington, D.C., since 1994, are meant to honor law enforcement officers “for actions above and beyond the call of duty.”
The officers, who are assigned to the 103rd Precinct, were the only New York lawmen honored this year, according to the NAPO website.
The officers were posing for a photo on Jamaica Avenue near 162nd Street on Oct. 23, 2014 when they were attacked by Zale Thompson, 32, who police said was inspired by radical Islamic groups.
Thompson struck Healey, 24, in the head and hit another officer, Joseph Meeker, 25, in the right arm. He was later shot to death.
Healey underwent two surgeries and continues to recover.
“He is doing great,” Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann, commanding officer of the 103rd Precinct, said about Healey at a precinct community council meeting Tuesday night.
“He was just in the precinct a week ago. He looks like a new man.”
Cappelmann also said that Healey “still has about a year of physical therapy to work on ... to get back on the job.”
“But that’s what he wants to do — he wants to come back,” he said.
