The current issue
Neighborhood Map
Bay Ridge
  • Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
Brooklyn Heights
  • Downtown, DUMBO
Carroll Gardens
  • Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
Fort Greene
  • Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
North Brooklyn
  • Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
Park Slope
  • Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
GO Brooklyn
Dining Guide
Where to GO
Events calendar
Classifieds
The Brooklyn Wire
Not Just Nets
Police Blotter
Perspective
Parenting
Politics
Transit
Podcasts
Brooklyn Cyclones
Merchant news
About The Paper
RSS Feeds
CNG Boro Politics

Ridge hero cop loses “America’s Most Wanted” dog and pony show

By Thomas Tracy
Community Newspaper Group
NYPD
Officer Susan Porcello — she lost, even though Bay Ridge gained.

Tools

Print this story
digg
del.icio.us

Heroic NYPD officer Susan Porcello won’t be an “America’s Most Wanted” all-star after all — but she doesn’t care anyway.

“It’s all well and good,” said Porcello, who got on the radar screen of the popular TV crime show after she befriended an ailing World War II veteran and then paid for his funeral out of her own pocket.

“I’d do what I did again in a heartbeat,” she said.

What she did was truly above and beyond the call of duty.

Last July, Porcello was dispatched to Gasper Musso’s Marine Avenue home after a 911 call reported him ill from an overdose of his medication.

Paramedics arrived and began treatment on the diabetic Musso, but Porcello focussed on the man’s emotional wounds.

Learning that he had no family or friends, Porcello stood by her new “grandpa,” visiting him regularly and helping him connect to other area seniors. Later, Porcello helped get him an apartment in a senior-citizen facility.

Most important, she was right there when the 84-year-old died in November, ensuring that his final wish of being buried next to his mother was honored.

She used her own money to pay for a funeral at St. Patrick’s Church befitting a World War II vet — who fought in the Marianas Islands in 1944.

“No way was I going to let this brave old Marine … get buried in Potter’s Field,” she told the Daily News last year.

Porcello arranged for a Marine Corps color guard, and even paid for a wake at McLaughlin’s on Third Avenue.

“She went above and beyond,” said Deputy Inspector Eric Rodriguez, her commanding officer at the 68th Precinct. “We’re always saying that the community is an extension of our family and she proved it. “For her to take this step not only gave an area resident the respect and dignity he deserved, but gave a lot of the veterans hope that they’re not being forgotten.”

Maybe in Bay Ridge, but not with voters nationwide, who ended up making Porcello third to the eventual winner, Det. William Weigt of Peria, Ariz. Weigt’s story differs from Porcello’s in that he was paralyzed from the chest down after a drug-related shooting in 2005, according to the “America’s Most Wanted” Web site.

©2009 The Brooklyn Paper

←Rhythm & News: Frank sings about bedbugs!
→Music: Danny Kalb joins Folk Fest lineup!

Reader Feedback

Enter your comment below

By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:

You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

First name
Last name
Your neighborhood
Email address
Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.