Cop rallies nabe after death of boy, 2; just wanted to help his family
Tuesday, June 24th 2008, 12:23 AM
Sabo/News Community Affairs Police Officer Dimas Cortez, 34, of the 40th Precinct in Mott Haven, the Bronx.
The electric outlet had no safety plug to keep 2-year-old Josian Garcia Camacho from sticking in a key as any kid his age might.
The Bronx boy was beyond saving when firefighters and paramedics arrived last Tuesday night.
The 40th Precinct stationhouse is directly next door and the next day Community Affairs Police Officer Dimas Cortez appeared at the family's fifth floor apartment.
"I said, 'I'm just here to see how I can help you,'"
Cortez recalls.
The dead boy's father held out a paper on which a local funeral home had written an estimate of $4,700. This was about $4,700 more than the grieving family could manage. Cortez understood they were destitute as well as devastated.
Cortez told the father to give him a little time. The cop went to another funeral home, the
La Paz on 149th St. La Paz immediately agreed to provide the coffin and the funeral gratis.
"They opened their arms and said, 'Whatever you need for this family,'" Cortez remembers.
There remained the $350 cost of flying the boy to his native
Mexico and the $250 for burial there. Cortez conferred at the stationhouse with the PBA delegate,
Police Officer Brian McGuckin.
"We said, 'We have to do something,'" Cortez recalls.
Even cops who are feeling a pinch supporting their families reached into their pockets. A single roll call kicked in $700. The cops kept giving and the total collection was $1,740.
"They GAVE," McGuckin says. "It was definitely the whole command."
Cortez and McGuckin visited all three firehouses in the precinct. The firefighters were just as quick to kick in.
The wake was on Friday, and a fire lieutenant presented the grieving family with envelopes containing $750 in addition to what the cops raised to help them through the bleak days ahead.
The boy lay in his coffin clad in a white suit and shoes that Cortez had bought at Angel's clothing store.
"All my son would talk about is cops and firemen," the mother told Cortez in Spanish.
Five of the fire rigs that once thrilled the boy parked outside La Paz as firefighters knelt two at a time before the tiny coffin.
The cops did the same and the 40th Precinct provided a floral arrangement in addition to those donated by a local florist. The legendary battle of the badges seemed just so much bunk.
At 7 p.m., everyone joined in prayer led by the
Rev. John Grange. The family brought the cops' flowers home and set them before a makeshift altar that included photos of the boy, religious figures, a candle and a slice of watermelon.
The flowers still smelled fresh and the candle was still flickering when I visited the apartment Monday. I gazed at a photomontage of Josian climbing rocks.
"In the park," a male relative said.
A female relative came out with the youngest of the three surviving children, a smiling 4-month-old named Yahir.
"A boy," the woman said.
At the stationhouse next door, Cortez was busy contacting companies that might donate safety outlet plugs to be distributed at the big fair on Third Ave. on Sunday. A number of his friends had urged him to call the media and get some credit for himself and the 40th Precinct.
"I said, 'No, we know in our hearts what we of the 4-0 and the firemen did,' " he recalled
In fact, you would not be reading this story now if a firefighter had not called me to marvel at this community affairs cop and what his comrades had done.
"We aren't looking for recognition," Cortez said. "We were just looking to help."
mdaly@nydailynews.com
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