New NYPD grad inspired to join ranks by retired Finest who saved him from drowning as kid

One of the newest members of the NYPD was inspired to join the department after a retired Finest died a hero while saving him from drowning in Puerto Rico more than a decade ago. 

Newly minted Officer Justin Acevedo, 23 — one of 968 recruits who graduated from the Police Academy on Monday — told The Post he is alive today thanks to his football coach, retired Detective Jose Rosario, who guided him to safety in the choppy waters off Playa de Jobos in 2015 before perishing in the waves.

“I feel like [Jose would] be very proud of me,” said Acevedo, who was 11 when Rosario saved his life.

Asked what he might have told Rosario if the retired detective were still alive, the young cop replied, “I would just thank him for what he did for me and my family for saving my life.

“I would just thank him for letting me be here.

“Now I’m in this role as a police officer, and it gives me [the opportunity] to share my experience and help others,” said Acevedo, who lives upstate.

In an especially touching moment, Rosario’s widow, Inez, and son, Noah, watched from the audience as Acevedo graduated, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. 

Rosario joined the NYPD in 1990 and served until 2011, with his last assignment in Manhattan North Narcotics.

He took up football coaching after retirement and was vacationing with his young players and their families when he jumped into action to keep the 11-year-old Acevedo from drifting off in the fierce rip tide. 

“The wave started hitting me, and [Jose] was near me….and he picked me up to the reef, and we stood there for a couple minutes. We caught our breath,” Acevedo recalled. “And then, [he said], ‘OK, you got to swim back to the beach now,’ so he kind of … threw me into the water, like pushed me.

“And then I just kept swimming. I kept looking, and he was still there. And then when I got to the beach, I turned around, and I couldn’t see him no more.”

Acevedo safely made it back to shore, but Rosario never did. 

“Justin watched as members of the NYPD stood beside Detective Rosario’s family,” Tisch told the assembly of new cops gathered at the Police Academy. “He saw the way that this department honors those who serve and supports those they leave behind.

“Today Justin Acevedo stands here among you, carrying forward the example of the man who saved his life.”

Tisch also recognized new Officer Anthony Cantore, 26, who paused his journey toward entering the NYPD a few years ago to donate a kidney to his retired lieutenant father, Thomas Cantore — granting his Staten Island dad “a second chance at life” through an “act of love and selflessness.

“Before he could begin his own career, he faced a different challenge,” Tisch told the sea of blue. “His father needed a kidney transplant. Anthony stepped forward to donate a kidney and save his father’s life.

“That decision delayed his own journey into this department, but it gave his father a second chance at life,” she said. “Now because of that act of love and selflessness, his father … is here today to watch him graduate.”

Anthony — whose grandfather also was an NYPD detective and uncle a sergeant — longed to “join the police department as a third-generation officer,” he told The Post.

Anthony said he initially took the test to enter the ranks in 2021 but soon needed to turn his focus to his dad, who suffered from kidney disease and began dialysis in September of 2022.

“It was, you know, a little tough to get through,” he said.

But a year later, Anthony — whose O-negative blood type made him a universal donor — donated the much-needed organ to his dad.

“I just want to say that he stepped up. I didn’t ask him. He stepped up,” said the elder Cantore, who joined the NYPD in July of 1989 and retired in June of 2008, last assigned to his own borough’s 120th Precinct. 

“He saw what I was going through for the last year,” he said. “He was ready to do it, and he was able to do it. There’s a lot involved, and that’s what took a while.

“But it was his decision when it was all said and done. I’m very proud of him. I’m happy to be here. I’m so happy to see him graduate from the Police Department.” 

The newest Cantore on the force said he is “just grateful for the opportunity to go through this process, that my dad is fine, he’s able to … do everything that anybody else can.

“I [hope to] be an inspiration for somebody else, if they’re thinking about doing it, and they can learn about what I went through with my dad.”