As one of the courageous Finest said, “I wasn’t going to give up,” two NYPD officers who were paralyzed in vehicle accidents while on duty around 20 years ago were elevated to second-grade detectives on Friday.
Scot O. Abrams, 51, a 27-year veteran of the NYPD who sustained a complex fracture to his left leg and a spinal cord damage in a 2007 motorcycle accident, stated that he was committed to going back to work in spite of his life-altering injuries.
As his ecstatic wife Tara, 51, and son Joshua, 19, watched, Abrams was formally promoted in rank and given a standing ovation at One Police Plaza’s auditorium.
“It’s long-awaited, you know,” Abrams stated after the ceremony. “Just because I was hurt, I wasn’t gonna stop being back to the job.”
Abrams, assigned to Brooklyn’s Highway Patrol Unit 2, was abruptly interrupted while riding his motorbike to a funeral procession.
He was ejected from his motorcycle after losing control and colliding with a bus.
According to what his wife informed the network at the time, his injuries were so severe that he received his final rites at the hospital.
However, the investigator stated on Friday that it’s “unbelievable” that he was able to go over the almost fatal obstacle and keep serving.
“It’s the Marine in me,” Abrams stated. “My wife knew it from day one. I wasn’t going to give up… I started to go to work and, you know, give a positive outlook for [others in] the police department.”
“[I wanted to] show my son who was 14 months old when my incident happened — now he’s 19 as a young man – never to give up and push through, to strive and dreams and goals will come to you,” he stated.
“And in five years or so, he’s going to be in blue standing right next to me,” Abrams continued.
Joshua, who is currently joining the Marine Corps with the intention of joining the NYPD, broke down in tears when he thought of his hero dad’s tenacity.
“He’s helped me become a respectable young man,” he stated. “He’s helped me through a lot of hard obstacles in my life, and I just wouldn’t know what I would do without him.”
A standing ovation was also given to a hero police officer who was promoted to second-grade detective after being disabled in the line of duty nearly 20 years ago.
According to a report at the time, early on May 26, 2005, Det. Thomas Mitchell was in a squad car on his way to a robbery call in the Rockaways when the cruiser crashed into a power pole.
Mitchell was paralyzed from the chest down and is still in a wheelchair today because he failed to wear his seatbelt.
Since the tragic collision, he has made it his mission to mentor and encourage new police officers.
“For some reason [the 20 years] went by really fast,” Mitchell stated. “I’ve been going around giving speeches to other officers about what happens when you’re not wearing a seat belt in a [police car].”
“I told them how my life is fine for one second and then it was completely changed,” he continued. “You gotta get to a job sometimes fast, but you gotta also arrive in one piece.”
According to Mitchell’s 53-year-old wife, Debra, her husband underwent a rapid change after the collision.
“He went from being a police officer that uses – 6-foot-2 guy — his physical prowess, and he turned to combining that with his heart and his mind and just being authentic,” Debra stated.
At the ceremony, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch praised the two hero cops.
“Scot and Thomas didn’t stop working,” according to the top cop. “They didn’t just focus on themselves when they had every single reason in the world to do so. They turned their injuries into purpose and continued to serve.”
Abrams and Mitchell’s “strength in the face of life-altering, line-of-duty injuries and their continued dedication to their fellow Finest and our city” were also commended by Detectives Endowment Association President Scott Munro.
Tisch also praised Christopher B. Senft, the first third-generation Bomb Squad officer to be promoted from officer to detective in the department.
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His grandfather, now 78-year-old retired Det. Anthony Senft, was injured in 1982 while attempting to assist in disarming a bomb planted in Federal Plaza in Manhattan by the notorious Puerto Rican terrorist organization FALN.
The highest honor in the department, the Medal of Valor, was given to him.
Brian Senft, Christopher’s 55-year-old father, was a detective for 14 years, the last five of which were with the Bomb Squad.
“Both Anthony and Brian were Detective Shield number 160, passing from father to son, and today, that shield belongs to the newest Detective Senft,” Tisch stated.
Although he was a member of the Suffolk County Police Department, Christopher’s great-grandfather also had the same shield number, Brian explained, “so it’s technically the fourth generation of that number, but third generation in the NYPD.”
The youngest Senft detective claimed that carrying on the NYPD tradition was always his dream.
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Growing up my whole life, I always wanted to be a police officer,” Christopher stated. “That was always my only [goal] – I didn’t know what else I would do besides that.”
“So I always knew that I was going to pursue this. Specifically the Bomb Squad, it was always like my second dream to get into this unit.”
The oldest Senft, meantime, was ecstatic by his grandson’s accomplishment.
