Neighbors ‘devastated’ after NYPD recruit dies in sweltering heat: ‘He would have been a good cop’

Heartbroken neighbors of a 33-year-old NYPD recruit who died in sweltering heat at a Bronx firing range said they’re still reeling after losing “a good person” just days before he joined New York’s Finest.

“I’m devastated,” neighbor Susan DelValle said of fallen recruit Edgar Ordonez. “I was so proud of him when he told me he was going to be a police officer. I was cheering for him.

“He was polite, loving, friendly, very respectful,” DelValle said. “He was a quiet guy. He was so close to [graduation] day and look what happened.”

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Ordonez, who was due to graduate and join the force on Monday, was training at the department’s firing range at Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx shortly before 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday when he collapsed in an apparent heat-related episode , according to police and sources.

An ambulance was called to the scene around 11:25 a.m., with Ordonez arriving at Jacobi Medical Center nearly 30 minutes later, where he was pronounced dead, according to sources.

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A row of city cops lined up in silent salute as his body was taken to a waiting ambulance.

Authorities have not announced an official cause of death, but Ordonez’s died in the midst of a brutal heat wave in the five boroughs, with the heat index nearing 100 degrees on Wednesday.

According to sources, NYPD trainees are often forced to wear heavy gear including helmets, long pants and heavy boots regardless of the weather — part of the rigors of joining the Big Apple force.

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“I think it was too hot to be outside,” an Ordonez neighbor who only identified himself as Mr Sow told The Post. “This heat is too much. It’s like sad.

“I believe he would have been a good cop,” he added. “He would have been out there taking bad guys off the streets, out there serving the community.”

DelValle recalled seeing Ordonez leaving their South Bronx building just two days before his death.

“He told me, ‘My day is coming up! I got up and hugged him and he hugged me back,” she said. “I said to him, ‘I’m very proud of you.’ He said, ‘Thank you for being proud of me.'”

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