PAX Centurion - May / June 2013

Page 46 • PAX CENTURION • May/June 2013 617-989-BPPA (2772) O n Thursday May 2 nd , I had the honor of sitting in on a number of interviews involving a group of guys from the Gang Unit that were front and center for the events in Watertown on ThursdayApril 18th. If I had to say what I felt after those nine interviews in one word that word would be “WOW!!” Thankfully the Pax Centurion is a medium that allows for a far greater capacity of words so I’ll try to make my feelings and a little of their stories known. I was inWatertown on Thursday. I listened to the chaotic nature of the incident on Channel 5 and Channel 1 while my partner and I raced to a scene that we had no idea how to find or what we’d find. The reports of hand grenades and bombs being thrown at officers. The gunfire coming from every direction. This was obvious from the radio reports. To be in the thick of it must have been surreal and hor- rifying all at once. What was amazing, and what has truly become the theme of the Boston Police over the course of MarathonWeek, was that no one ran away. I first heard a personal account from one offi- cer’s perspective shortly after the incident on the 18th wound down. I heard it from an officer that was forced to discharge his weapon in an effort to stop the crazed half-assed jihadists that attacked us. I heard it from a person I consider one of my closest friends in the world. While he recounted the “unclassified” version of events he would stop over and over again and say “it wasn’t just me, there were other guys there, guys from the gang unit, guys from other departments.” This was his mantra from when I found him on Dexter Av. until he began to doze off on his couch later that morning. While he kept say- ing it I never really asked who. My concern was him. While he rattled off names I just let them go in one ear and out the other hoping he was going to be OK. Two weeks later I found out who some of those officers were. I found out some of what they did that terrifying night inWatertown. I am in awe of those men and I am proud to call them my brothers. The officers were in three separate cars. Three groups who were all actively involved in the hunt for Officer Sean Collier’s killers. Each with separate tasks but all with the same mission. When the call for assistance came across the many radio channels they were monitoring they rushed to the scene. Like every other cop not fromWatertown they used Mapquest on their phones, past excursions to “that part of the world” and/or stars to find their way to Dexter Av. and Laurel St. But they found their way. From what I now know of these guys nothing would stop them from finding their way. Some were met with pipe bombs exploding near them as they got out of their cars. They RAN towards the source. Not away like the other 98% of the world would (and probably should) do. They searched for Dumb and Dumber, the cowards that attacked us. They, to a man, told how bul- lets in that insane scene seemed to be going by their heads from both directions. They never ran away. They sought cover and advanced on where they believed to the targets to be whenever they could. As the “pressure cookers” and pipe bombs exploded and shrapnel and debris rained down on them they stayed. One officer recalled that it was no big deal; it didn’t cut him or anything. I thought to myself “If a bomb going off near enough to you to expose you to the debris caused by it is not a big deal what is?” Every one of them acknowledged that they were afraid on some level. Not one of them ever said they wanted to get away. Imagine bombs going off and bullets whizzing by you. Now imagine discounting that and staying in the fight. That’s what guys did. Truly amazing. Watertown… By Chris Broderick, D4 Representative  It does not stop there. There was a brother officer down that needed help and there was about to be a human speed bump to deal with. Our officers helped save Officer Donahue’s life. No matter what else happened or was happening guys went to him. There were offi- cers that recount giving CPR. There are accounts of officers standing up with their weapon pointed in the direction of the bad guys and pro- vided “cover” while they got Officer Donahue to an ambulance. That is not cover. Those are the actions of heroes providing themselves as human shields to ensure Officer Donahue was safely placed in an ambulance. Our guys offered him aide. Our guys rendered aide. Our guys protected him until the threat had stopped. Our guys encouraged him to hang on. Our guys helped save his life. Thank you to those guys for saving his life. Then there was that lowly piece of garbage that had to be dealt with. Tackled by aWatertown officer and a Boston officer. With zero regard for themselves, not caring that this fool may have had a device strapped to him, they stopped him. An officer said during his inter- view that he wanted guys to back up while he searched the bad guy. I realized that this officer had finally decided to account for the pos- sible explosives. He still wasn’t concerned for himself but he did fear for his brothers. After all that had happened in the last two hours this officer only thought about was the safety of men and women, brothers and sisters, with him. All I could think about when I heard this was “what balls this guy has.” There was an officer, along with a guy from another department that had the good sense to stay with the prisoner until the job was done. The bad guy had not yet expired when they peeled him off the roadway and dusted off the tread marks his little brother and protégé had left across him. That officer, on his own initiative, jumped in the ambulance and guarded this most vile of prisoners until such time as he was no longer needed. Let’s be honest. No one likes guarding prisoners. This officer knew someone had to do it and stepped up. I pray it was a Boston badge that he saw just before he died. I hope that the memory of that badge burns in his sick, twisted head throughout the afterlife. I’ve only told bits and pieces of the stories I heard on Thursday the 2 nd of May. I know that any one of the officers that wear a Boston Police Badge would have stepped up and done what these guys did inWatertown. The one difference is that these guys had to do it. They had to do it and I bet they would again. Find out who they are. The easiest way will be to listen to the guy that tells you how much of a hero his partner was that day. How his partner was fearless and did everything right.You’ll realize the speaker was right next to him the whole time. Fearless and brave. Strong and honorable. But humble. Only thinking of his partner, of others. They way so many men and women I work with did during the week of Marathon Monday. Thank you. Every one of you.      I would also like to thank the two Sergeant Detectives from our Homicide Unit that ran the interviews for the Firearms Discharge Investigation Team. They, in my opinion, treated the officers they interviewed with respect. The entire goal of the BPPA is that patrol officers are treated with respect. Whether its pay, hours worked, working conditions, IAD, or 303s we want our officers guys treated fairly and with dignity. The two bosses in the room did just that. They have a job to do, they have an investigation to move forward, but their professionalism and their fairness was obvious to me in each and every interview. ThankYou.