Artist pays tribute to fallen NYPD cop with portrait

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Detective Miosotis Familia's friendly eyes and a smile that brightened every room she walked into are uncannily captured in a portrait painted by artist Kenny Altidor.

"It isn't about the art -- it's about the officer and about the loss," Kenny said.

Familia was assassinated in the Bronx on July 5. The next day Kenny went to work making sure every detail was just right.

 The portrait now sits at Familia's home precinct, the 46th, where her heartbroken colleagues write messages they wish they could say to their sister in blue.

"The reason why I asked all the officers to sign their emotions is to create a path of emotion," Kenny said. "One thing I like about NYPD -- you touch one of them, you touch the whole department.

before it arrived here to the 46th precinct, Kenny brought to 10 other precincts as well as 1 Police Plaza., where it received hundreds of signatures and well-wishes. The next stop for the portrait is Detective Familia's family.

"Those three kids – I want them to know that the community valued her work," Kenny said. "And their mother, she was a 'shero.'"

A hero no one admired more than Familia's daughter, Genesis, who appeared on Good Day New York Thursday.

Familia's life was taken in an instant but her legacy of seeking justice lives on in a city forever in her debt.