Daniel Nowomlynski was a 32-year-old New York City police officer who died on September 16, 1977, from injuries sustained in a violent street assault. The attack occurred when he moved to assist another officer and was confronted by members of a motorcycle gang. He was knocked down, struck in the head with a steel helmet, and at one point an assailant jumped from the top of a car onto his stomach. Those injuries produced internal trauma and a fractured skull.

Surviving the initial attack proved prolonged and precarious; he experienced persistent headaches and convulsions and deteriorated over the following months before dying nearly a year after the beating. Memorial records name him as a Vietnam War Army veteran assigned to the 23rd Precinct and note his wife, two children, mother, and two sisters; cemetery records show burial at Long Island National Cemetery.