Detective Vito T. Navarra (1943-2023) began his career in the NYPD as a patrol officer and eventually achieved the rank of first grade detective. On April 14, 1972, he and his partner, Patrol Officer Phillip Cardillo, responded to what would later be determined to be a false call about an officer in distress. The officers arrived at the location, the Nation of Islam Mosque in Harlem, and they entered to investigate. While inside, both officers were severely beaten, and Cardillo was shot with his own gun, dying six days later. A suspect was later arrested, but no conviction was obtained, and the case remains open to this day. Navarra completed 27 years of service in the NYPD before he retired in 1995.

Navarra was the son of Thomas and Mary Navarra and the third of their three children. His father was a butcher, and his mother was originally from Italy. In the early 1950s, the family lived in Queens Village. In 1963, Navarra married Ann Elizabeth Horlebein, and they had two children together, AnnMarie and Laura.

After working for a period as a truck driver, Navarra joined the NYPD on October 25, 1968. He was assigned to the 28th Precinct in Harlem, and he was partnered with Cardillo. In 1974, Navarra was promoted to detective, earning second grade in 1987 and first grade in 1993. He worked in the Special Victims Unit in Queens until his retirement in 1995. He was then appointed as an investigator for the District Attorney’s Office, where he was assigned to the Special Victims Bureau, before his final retirement in 2002.

His wife, Ann, owned and operated a hair salon for a period in Williston Park, Long Island. The couple eventually lived in Toms River, New Jersey, and Venice, Florida, and Ann predeceased her husband in 2022. On his death in 2023, Navarra was survived by his daughters as well as several grand- and great-grandchildren.

On May 10, 2025, a dedication ceremony was held to co-name the intersection of 28th Avenue and Ulmer Street (northeast corner), in front of the New York Police Academy in College Point, as Detective Vito Navarra Way. This tribute joins a previous honor from 2015, when the southeast corner of the same intersection was co-named for Cardillo as Ptl. Phillip Cardillo Way, reuniting the fellow officers and partners at a place symbolic of their service.