Port St. Lucie Police Chief Leo Niemczyk, a former New York police officer who worked the World Trade Center wreckage after the September 11 attacks and lost a childhood friend in the disaster, is breaking decades of silence to share his story as the city marks 25 years since the attacks.
Niemczyk was a Queens police officer assigned to the South Auto larceny unit when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. He was completing a night shift when he responded to the Trade Center. In the direct aftermath of the attacks, Niemczyk worked sometimes seven days a week in 12-hour shifts sifting through wreckage for survivors.
"I spent probably 20 or so years hiding from Sept. 11. I made sure I wasn't working. I didn't turn on a television.
"I didn't look at a newspaper. I just pretended to stick my head in the sand.
"Among those Niemczyk was searching for was a childhood friend named Mark, a New York City transit district police officer. Mark's family asked Niemczyk to relay any news from the attack site. "I knew right away. Because what I knew about the site and what I was looking at when I was there, and if anybody wasn't already reaching out and saying, 'Hey, I'm OK,' you knew," Niemczyk said.
"Niemczyk said he now feels it is important to speak openly about his work at the site to honor all lives lost, including those who later developed health conditions from working in the aftermath. "You're a cop and you don't think about your own well-being first. You think about the people you're trying to save and protect, right?" he said.
"Port St. Lucie has two World Trade Center beams on display, one at Tradition Field and another outside the MidFlorida Event Center.