Pregnant cop reveals last chat with dad killed in NYC garage collapse
The pregnant NYPD cop whose dad died in last week’s Manhattan parking-garage collapse wept at his funeral Friday as she recalled their final conversation an hour before his death.
“You were telling me how much fun you had at my baby shower, and just us laughing and getting at each other like we usually do — you had such a smile on your face the last time we were together,” Officer Brittany Moore said of her tragic father, Willis Moore, 59, at the Mount Vernon Seventh-Day Adventist Church service, whose mourners included Mayor Eric Adams.
“I’m so grateful we had that opportunity to talk,” she said.
“If I would have known that would be the last time [we spoke], I would have told you how much I love you, even though you would play it off because you never liked that mushy stuff,” the cop said, breaking down in sobs at times during her eulogy.
Willis Moore died on April 19 when the Little Man Parking facility he managed in the Financial District crumbled, trapping him inside and injuring five others. Authorities have said the collapse appears to have at least partly stemmed from too many vehicles on the top level.
Brittany, who is pregnant with a girl, told mourners she is heartbroken her beloved father will not meet his new granddaughter.
But “[my daughter] will know who her grandfather was,” she said, noting that her father’s friends, neighbors and nearby business owners “have nothing but kind words” to say about him.
![Willis Wayne Moore.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009862339-1.jpg?w=719)
![Brittany Moore.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000010306968.jpg?w=1024)
![Parking garage collapse.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009819750-3.jpg?w=1024)
“I remember when I graduated from the [Police] Academy, you were so proud of me,” the officer said. “Any time I had something work-related to do downtown, I would always stop by to surprise you at the garage.
“No matter what partner I had for the day, whoever I was working with, I always introduced them to you, and you always treated them with kindness and respect. I remember working in City Hall overnight, and you always brought me food to eat because I couldn’t leave my post.
“I know you’re up there with God in your favorite navy blue suit,” she said.
“I will continue to make you proud, Daddy, and continue being your pride and joy. And now I know I have my guardian angel with me.”
Moore’s emotional funeral, which included NYPD officers among the mourners, comes one week after a surviving Little Man employee, Pierre Vancol, told The Post that both he and the manager warned the building’s owners about the allegedly unsafe conditions there.
![Exterior of the church.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000010306976.jpg?w=1024)
![Mayor Eric Adams.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000010306975.jpg?w=1024)
“I always know that thing was going to happen,” Vancol, 50, said of the deadly disaster.
Vancol claimed that he and his co-workers saw huge cracks in the facility and that Moore recently tried to address the issue.
“They have cracks in the building, but you know the way, like, you know, they park the big cars on the roof. I say, ‘Wow! It’s not safe, it’s not really safe because up there if anything happens, those cars gonna come crashing down,’ ” he explained.
“That day, [Moore] was complaining about it. He is a man like that. If he saw something wrong, he always like, you know, talk to the boss and tell them what’s going on.”
Engineering reports obtained by The Post showed the building’s history of structural issues.
As of Friday afternoon, officials were still probing the cause of the collapse. The building is owned by a pair of Long Island brothers who have been flipping properties for decades.