Via Daily Beast:
No giving of thanks was ever more soul stirring than the one offered on the night of Nov. 4 by the widow of an NYPD sergeant outside a Bronx hospital.
Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo had been rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in the afternoon after being shot by a maniac armed with a semi-automatic pistol. His last words had been a warning that likely saved his partner’s life as they approached a suspect’s car.
“Gun! Gun! Gun!”
The doctors at Jacobi had become experts by treating far too many gunshot wounds, but they had been unable to save the 41-year-old father of two young boys. He had been pronounced dead even as his wife, Lisa, was being rushed there.
As always happens when one of their own is killed in the line of duty, cops from all over the city came to the hospital, a good number from home, most in plainclothes.
“Whatever they wore to get there,” a cop later said.
More than 500 of them were standing outside the emergency entrance at 9 p.m., when their slain comrade was brought out on a gurney, covered with a flag. They went silent as he was wheeled the 25 feet to a waiting NYPD ambulance that would be taking him to the medical examiner’s office.
Lisa Tuozzolo watched from the emergency entrance as her husband was placed in the back of the ambulance. She began to wail as the two doors thumped shut.
“Open the doors,” somebody was heard to say.An emergency service cop did as bid. An NYPD chief escorted the widow up to the reopened back. She climbed inside and sat alone beside the man who had been an adoring husband and a dad such as all dads should be.
The cops remained still and mute as the hush filled with Lisa Tuozzolo’s sounds of absolute grief. She collected herself after three or four eternal minutes and stepped back out onto the concrete apron. The only sound was her voice.
“Thank you, everybody,” she said. “Thank you. Thank you.”
