FINEST FOREVER
News salutes late hero cop, whose spirit will live on
THE DAILY NEWS honored the life of NYPD Detective Steven McDonald during a Thursday ceremony attended by his widow and son.
Daily News Co-Chairman and Co-Publisher Eric J. Gertler and Editor-in-Chief Arthur Browne presented Patti Ann McDonald and her NYPD sergeant son Conor with framed copies of the “Eternal Love” front page.
The Jan. 14 cover featured the emotional funeral photo that captured Patti Ann, a white rose in hand, bowing to kiss her husband’s casket as Conor looked on.
“It is humbling for us to be able to cover people like Steven McDonald, who really spent his lift standing for the good and the generous,” Gertler said at The News’ lower Manhattan offices.
“To Patti Ann and Conor, let me just say thank you for sharing this moment with us and our hearts go out to you.”
Steven McDonald was a second-year cop in 1986 when a 15-year-old gunman shot him three times as he patrolled Central Park. The 29-year-old McDonald, a newlywed with a pregnant wife, was left paralyzed from the neck down.
McDonald publicly forgave the shooter, even though the quadriplegic officer knew he’d spend the rest of his life breathing with the help of a respirator.
“Deprived of his ability to physically move but still blessed with some incredible depth of soul, Steven McDonald forgave his assailant, signaling that New York was a place where the better angels still live,” Browne said.
“And then, Steven McDonald went on to live an extraordinary — absolutely extraordinary — life.”
For the next 30 years, McDonald traveled the world as a prophet of peace and forgiveness. He died Jan. 10 at 59 after suffering a heart attack at his Long Island home four days earlier.
Hundreds turned out for McDonald’s funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral — including Mayor de Blasio and former Mayor David Dinkins, along with NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill and his predecessor, Bill Bratton.
Conor McDonald praised the Daily News’ coverage of his father’s final days and highlighted the paper’s front page calling the fallen officer “God’s Cop.”
“It was pretty remarkable waking up that next day after probably the worst day of my entire life, to see that picture of my father,” Conor McDonald said.
“‘God’s Cop,’ which was just the epitome of my dad.”
O’Neill, who also attended the Thursday ceremony, said Steven McDonald represents the best of humanity.
“Here’s a man who struggled with every breath for 30 years and look at his legacy — it’s one of peace and forgiveness,” O’Neill said.
Here’s a man who struggled with every breath for 30 years and look at his legacy — it’s one of peace and forgiveness. Police Commissioner James O’Neill