NYPD K-9 handlers best friend named after dad killed in line of duty

NYPD K-9 Officer Katarina Narvaez became a cop to honor her dad who was killed in the line of duty in Brooklyn — and his memory lives on right by her side, every day at work.Narvaez, 37, was just 9 years old when her best friend in the world — Lt.

Frederico Narvaez — was fatally shot while responding to a domestic incident in Flatbush on Oct.18, 1996.Twenty-two years later, when she joined the K-9 team of the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit, she met her new best friend, a wire-haired pointer/Labrador mix pooch.

So she named him Freddy.“I feel honored that they let me name him after my dad,” Narvaez said.“I wasn’t sure if they were going to allow that.

It meant a lot to me when they said that I could.”Now she hangs out all the time with with Freddy, an 8-year-old specialist in finding guns, and anything that can explode, including potassium chlorate, C4, dynamite and other compounds.She and Freddy showed off his impressive sniffer Wednesday to The Post at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Red Hook, where ESU canines are based. Navaez led Freddy toward three abandoned vehicles where another cop hid a fake pistol dipped in gunpowder. Once released from his collar, Freddy excitedly sniffed around the first two vehicles but came up empty.When he got to the third car, however, he slowed down and zeroed in on the right front bumper. Then, he sat down – which means he hit pay dirt.““Freddy has a great nose,” said ESU Detective and trainer Christina Orlando.After Freddy found the gun, Narvaez threw him a rope — his favorite toy — as a reward.“Such a good dog!” she cooed. Narvaez still gets emotional when she talks about her dad, who was working in the 70th Precinct in Flatbush when he answered a call of a woman being stalked.When Narvaez arrived after calling for backup, career criminal Harvey Richardson, 61, turned and fired, striking him in the face as he exited his patrol car before he could get off a shot.

Responding cops shot Richards...