Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and other top NYPD officials held the Emergency Service Unit’s (ESU) First Memorial Wall Rededication ceremony on Tuesday to remember the 45 heroes who lost their lives serving what Tisch called “the most elite team in law enforcement.”
Those rescue workers included the 15 officers killed in the agency’s first 70 years in operations as well as the 14 who died in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, as that solemn event’s 25-year anniversary draws near.
“Members from seven different emergency service squads across four boroughs were killed that day,” Tisch said.
Many other first responders later died from illnesses related to exposure to the toxic conditions at Ground Zero. Those ESU members were also remembered Tuesday.
The dais also included Chief of Housing Charles McEvoy, Chief of Special Operations Wilson Aramboles, Chief of Department Michael LiPetri and Commanding Officer of the Emergency Service Unit Gerard Dowling.
“The scale was just devastating and we had no time to process it. Because immediately the biggest crime scene ever turned into the biggest rescue and recovery operation ever and again, ESU was on the front line,” Tisch said.
The commissioner said those efforts included looking for the bodies of friends and colleagues whom searchers were still grieving.
Tisch noted that more than half of the 23 NYPD officers killed in the World Trade Center attack were with the ESU. She called that special unit “the tip of the NYPD’s spear” when New York City was attacked.
As part of the NYPD Special Operations Division, ESU responds to all emergencies within the department, including fire emergencies, tactical security operations and EMT efforts while also assisting the Port Authority.
A memorial honoring its fallen officers stands at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, where Tuesday’s event took place.
Tisch also had a message to the families of the ESU workers who died keeping the city safer.
“That pain is never yours to bear alone, we stand with you, we grieve with you and we carry on the legacies of these exceptional men through the lives they shaped and the work that they loved,” she said.
A moment of levity came Tuesday morning when LiPetri stepped behind the podium only to have the lights go out just as he said he wasn’t scheduled to speak, but decided to anyway.
“Perfect!” he said to an unexpected burst of laughter. “Absolutely perfect.”
Someone in the otherwise serious crowd of friends, family and supporters of law enforcement officers shouted out that it was funny, and LiPetri agreed.
Monsignor J. Romano spoke first with a prayer asking the Powers That Be to “please not to bring any more people to be put on this wall.”
The Sept. 11 attacks killed 2,753 people in New York City. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in total that day when a passenger plane was crashed into the Pentagon and another jet plummeted into a Pennsylvania field.