East Side NYPD Pct that Lost Four Members on 9/11 Honors Their Memory

As the solemn 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was marked throughout Manhattan, NYPD officers from the 13th Precinct gathered outside their E. 21st St. headquarters to commemorate cops that died that day. It’s part of a long tradition at the precinct. A total of 23 cops perished while responding to the scene. Those killed from the 13th include Robert Fazio, Brian McDonald, Glen K. Pettit, and Moira Ann Reddy Smith. Smith was the only female officer in the entire force to die that day, perishing after she had escorted several people to safety and went back to help some more.

The ceremony was timed in conjunction with two bells that ring out every year at 8:46 a.m. and 9:01 a.m., to mark when each passenger plane hit the World Trade Center towers. Some neighbors gathered on stoops or stopped their morning walks to watch the proceedings, and photographers gathered nearby. A phalanx of quiet officers stood directly facing the precinct and the speaker’s podium.

Patrick Hendry, the head of the Police Benevolent Association, gave a speech. “For the police officers who were on the job on September 11, we think about it all the time–where we were, what we were doing that morning. I will never forget the heroes who ran towards danger, when others were running the other way. I will never forget the courage and selflessness that was on display, putting others before themselves,” he said.

“I will never forget how we worked on the pile for months, and how we stood silent when we brought another [dead] brother or sister home. I will never forget the lives that were lost,” he continued. “The families whose lives were turned upside down in an instant.”

Hendry noted that 400 police officers have died of 9/11-related illnesses since 2001. Illnesses contracted from 9/11 have severely struck the ranks of other service members, as well. Around a week ago, city officials pointed out that 363 firefighters have now died from post-911 illnesses, surpassing the death toll of 343 firefighters killed during the attacks.

Some of the police officers from the 13th Precinct who have died of 911-related diseases include Deborah A. Garbutt-Jeff and Christopher Christodoulou, according to the Gramercy Park Block Association.

Father Jim Mayzik, of the Church of the Epiphany–a Catholic denomination–then gave a benediction. “We still remember the twisted smoke and metal rising into the bright blue sky over our city...for many of us it is still a day of loss and suffering,” he said. “Some of us still have anger, and some still live in fear.”

Mayzik went onto to offer a “blessing of peace” for still-mourning families, whether their loved one was “a plane passenger, an office worker, a firefighter, a police officer, or a member of the military.”

Smith, the only female police officer to perish on 9/11, has had her legacy cemented after a popular playground was named after her in nearby Madison Square Park. A New York Waterways ferry was also named in her honor. She left behind a husband, Jim Smith, who was on duty at the Police Academy on the day of the attack. She also had a daughter named Patricia, who was only two when she lost her mother.

Twenty years after the attacks, her bereaved husband told Pix11 that he was incredibly happy about the playground: “To see the person she has become, it’s just, like, the greatest joy in my life. I enjoy coming here and seeing the kids play. It’s an oasis in the city.”

A famous photograph from that day depicts Smith escorting a bloody and shellshocked Ed Nicholls, a broker, out of the World Trade Center shortly after the first tower was struck. She then went back to rescue more people shortly before the second plane hit the second tower, and did not return.