Last night my boyfriend and I were walking up Seventh avenue in the West Village. As we approached Greenwich Avenue, squad cars began screaming down the street past us. Just as we reached St. Vincent’s Hospital a squad car came blazing uptown, against the one-way traffic, sirens blaring. It flew into the driveway of the hospital and screeched to a halt. An officer jumped out, screamed toward the emergency room door, and threw open the backseat of his car. Soon a medic from the hospital was out the door with a gurney. They pulled a body from the back seat and loaded it on to the gurney. As a few ER medics began to carry the victim inside the gurney fell and the body dropped heavily to the cement. The officer who had leapt out of the squad car beat its hood in anguish.
The medics walked up a few steps toward the hospital where someone began performing CPR on the victim, pumping his chest urgently. It was then Dave and I saw that the victim was another police officer. And later, we learned what we had witnessed. A sobering example of just how quickly life can be snatched away, and a grim reminder to stop and appreciate what we have at the moment.
According to New York‘s Intelligencer, streets in the West Village remain closed this morning.
