NEW YORK, NY March 24, 2008 —Officials are urging the Justice Department to reconsider its denial of benefits to two auxiliary police officers who were killed in a violent street confrontation in the city last year.

Officers Nicholas Pekearo and Eugene Marshalik were killed in Greenwich Village while trying to stop a gunman after he killed a pizzeria bartender.

The two volunteer officers were not carrying guns.

If the decision to reject the benefits is overturned, it would entitle the officers' families to more than $300,000 in federal death benefits.