|
||
|
|
|
Several New York City police officers got their names and pictures in the papers and their faces on television in recent weeks for doing what, to them, comes naturally — using their wits and risking their skin to catch criminals and save lives. |
 |
|
| Officer Kim Flechaus and police dog Sean pose
proudly with plaque. Photo by Michael Dabin/Daily News |
he
case that grabbed the most headlines starred Police Officer Kim
Flechaus and her intrepid German Shepherd Sean.
Officer Flechaus and Sean work out of Brooklyn North’s Emergency
Service Squad #6 canine unit, and they were part of a team responding
to a report of a gang-rape in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park on the night
of Dec. 19.
A 42-year-old woman had been abducted by a band of homeless illegal aliens with reported ties to a notorious Los Angeles youth gang and dragged into a shanty-town shack in the shadow of Shea Stadium. There she was raped and beaten over a two-hour period by at least five men. The victim said later that, until she heard Sean’s barks, she had feared that she wasn’t going to get out of there alive.
Sean, named for Police Officer Sean McDonald, who was killed in the line of duty in 1994, picked up the victim’s scent from items she had dropped. Yanking on his leash, the 9-year-old police dog led Officer Flechaus to the crime-scene shack.
“He was pulling us,” said Flechaus, a 19-year veteran, referring to herself and other officers on the scene. “We couldn’t keep up with him. We knew we had somebody in there.” Their arrival gave the victim the courage to break free and flee.
“I knew the police were outside when I heard the dog barking, and that’s when I decided to run out,” she told detectives later. When the suspects refused to come out, Sean was taken off the leash and sent in after them. One by one, he dragged them out kicking and screaming between his jaws, apprehending four of the five accused rapists. A fifth suspect was arrested later. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly honored Officer Flechaus and Sean in a ceremony at One Police Plaza Dec. 23.
|
45 Pct. Police Officers |
 |
proclaimed
the Daily News headline after three police officers and
a sergeant from the 45 Pct. in the Bronx risked life and limb in a daring
rescue of three people in the pre-dawn hours on Dec. 29.
“There was no time to think about being scared,” said one of the cops, P.O. John Ferrer. He spoke these words shortly after he and the others braved smoke and flames to save an 87-year-old man, his daughter and another woman from the blaze that broke out in a storefront on Tremont Avenue and spread to second-floor living quarters.
The officers — Ferrer, Anthony Ledonne, Faziool Shafi and Sgt. Charles Daskakalis — responded to a report from a witness who rushed into the stationhouse. They ran to the nearby fire scene and, without the benefit of protective gear, sprang quickly into action. After getting into the building by smashing the lobby-door window, they were hit with a thick wall of acrid smoke. They made their way up the fiery staircase, barely able to see in front of them, scooped up the 87-year-old man and led the others out of the conflagration. Because of their swift and heroic action, there were no serious injuries.
the New York Post headine said ...
 |
|
| Police Officers Michael Isler (l) and Albert
Davide of the 103 Pct. Photo by Steve Miller |
The good police work New York’s Finest are famous for doesn’t stop when they’re off duty. “Eagle-eye cops nab Queens slay suspect,” the New York Post headline said, and that about sums it up.
P.O.s Michael Isler and Albert Davide of the 103 Pct. had just finished their overnight tour at 10 a.m. a few days before Christmas and were driving home on the Southern State Parkway when they spotted a black 2000 Chevy Suburban whose license plate matched that of a fugitive murder suspect. After notifying Suffolk County cops, they followed the Suburban onto the Long Island Expressway as far as Happauge, where the suspect crashed the car and fled on foot.
The officers chased and collared the suspect, identified as Dexter Griffith, wanted for killing his 26-year-old girl friend. Officers Isler and Davide were honored by Commissioner Kelly at the same headquarters ceremony where Officer Flechaus and her faithful canine companion Sean got their day in the spotlight. Of course, the TV and newspaper cameras and reporters duly recorded the event.
