‘I loved my father’
Jersey hero mourned by daughter, 11, many others
The heartbroken mourners honored Jersey City shooting hero Douglas Rodriguez in death as they knew him in life: Quietly, with dignity and deep love.
A tearful, low-key funeral service for the New Jersey man was held Saturday at a Paterson, N.J., funeral home, with friends and family — including wife Martha Freire and 11-year-old daughter Amy — gathered to grieve Rodriguez without fanfare.
“I love my father with all my heart and I miss him,” said Amy as the audience cried and clapped. “I want to thank God for all the years he gave me with him. I will always have him in my heart.”
The selfless Rodriguez, 49, was shot and killed this past Tuesday while saving the life of an Orthodox Jewish man wounded in the hate-fueled attack by two armed killers.
His widow, Martha, who collapsed immediately after learning of her husband’s death, said she felt Rodriguez’s presence at the service.
“Today he is telling me, ‘Martha, I am with you,’ ” she said. “Those who have Christ in their heart have peace.”
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop praised Freire for her grace in the days since her spouse was murdered inside the JC Kosher Supermarket, where he had just returned to work from vacation.
“She is an amazing woman,” said a somber Fulop, his head hanging and his voice soft. “She has already forgiven the shooters, and that’s incredible. But she’s going to need a lot of help.”
The sad sendoff was held at the Michigan Memorial funeral home, where police officers and three security workers kept the first part of the event private before the media were allowed inside.
The curtains were drawn on the modest single-story building where friends from both New Jersey and Rodriguez’s native Ecuador were in attendance.
“He was an amazing person,” said mourner Violeta Flores as she arrived with her daughter.
Alfonso Morales Suarez, representing the Consulate of Ecuador, appeared with a flag from the family’s homeland.
He confirmed that Rodriguez’s body would return to Ecuador on Tuesday for burial in the land of his birth.
Rodriguez and Freire first met as teens in their native country, igniting a love affair that burned brightly until his execution at the hands of two terrorists intent on killing police officers and Jews.
Rodriguez, less than an hour into his return shift, held open the business’ back door for wounded lunch patron Chaim Deutsch to sprint outside to safety.
Rodriguez was then struck by a bullet and killed, with his body found three hours later near the exit.
Before leaving his Harrison, N.J., home, Rodriguez said goodbye to his family. Though he never returned, his wife and daughter intend to remain in the country where they immigrated four years ago.
“You are going to stay and fulfill the dream, and we are going to help you do that,” promised Fulop.
Deutsch’s cousin Moshe, a 24-year-old rabbinical student, was killed along with storeowner Mindy Ferencz, 31 — who stopped by the store only minutes earlier so her husband could deliver a cake to the rabbi inside the adjoining synagogue.
The bodies of anti-Semitic, anti-cop killers David Anderson and Francine Graham were found dead inside the Jewish-owned business following a three-hour afternoon gunfight.
The deranged duo started their bloody rampage by fatally shooting veteran Jersey City police Detective Joseph Seals in a cemetery roughly a mile from the supermarket.