By Roni Jacobson and Leonard Greene
New York Daily News
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NEW YORK — Casey Kloepfer has a few personal memories of his father, a police officer who died in the line of duty on 9/11. But most of what he knows about his dad comes from stories he hears from his family and other cops.
“Being around the Police Department as a little kid, I always looked at these guys like they were superheroes,” Kloepfer said. “I always just wanted to be one one day.”
Now he is, and he’s got his father’s shield number on his chest to prove it.
Kloepfer, the son of Officer Ronald Kloepfer, is one of nearly 1,000 NYPD recruits who graduated Wednesday to become full-fledged police officers.
A day earlier, they received their guns and shields at a Police Academy ceremony in Queens, one of the last official steps before hitting the streets.
Kloepfer, 29, said his mother and two sisters couldn’t be more proud of his achievement, but admitted they are a little anxious.
“They’re super proud,” he said. “Obviously, they’re a little nervous because they know what comes with the job, but they know it’s the right path for me.”
Kloepfer’s father was 38 on Sept. 11, 2001, when a terrorist attack leveled the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan.
The elder Kloepfer was a member of the department’s elite Emergency Service Unit, and was killed while attempting to rescue the victims trapped in the World Trade Center.
For years, Kloepfer’s mother kept his father’s Class A dress uniform preserved in a closet. Kloepfer wore it at the graduation.
“I know he’s looking down,” Kloepfer said. “I’m trying to be as helpful and as good as a cop as he was.”
Another graduate with a 9/11 connection is Erica Tierney , whose uncle, NYPD Officer Stephen Driscoll died on that day.
Tierney’s father, a retired NYPD sergeant, pinned on her badge.
“They were both big influences in my life,” Tierney said. “Just seeing how they help people in a positive way, it inspired me to want to do the same.”
Unlike Kloepfer and Tierney, Christian Leon didn’t always want to be a cop. But after an off-duty NYPD officer pulled him from a wrecked car that was about to explode five years ago, it was all he ever wanted to do.
The other thing he wanted to do was to meet the cop who saved his life. On Tuesday, he got to do both.
“I got little goosebumps right now,” Leon said after the ceremony. “Because he’s the reason why I’m here. Because he helped me when I needed help the most, and now I can provide that to others. He saved my life.”
Leon had no idea that the officer who saved his life, Det. James Fares, would be the one who would pin his shiny new badge to his chest. Though nearly five years have passed since that Grand Central Parkway collision, Leon said he recognized his hero instantly.
“I was in school,” Leon recalled. “I remember that day. I had to take a final for biology. I was heading back home in 5:30 p.m. rush-hour traffic. I was behind another vehicle, just waiting, you know, for traffic to clear up. And then I suddenly see a car just rushing down the lane that I’m in, and he crashes into me. Everything was slow motion. I see smoke come out, and I’m just there, like, like lost in the moment, because I didn’t know what happened.”
Leon said he was too stunned to move when his car started smoking and leaking gas. Suddenly, Fares, who was off-duty at the time, appeared out of nowhere and pulled Leon out before the car caught fire. Fares left the scene before Leon could find out who he was and thank him.
Leon said he was studying biology and pursuing a career in medicine before the accident changed his plans.
He told the same story in an essay he wrote accompanying his NYPD application. Academy officials did a little detective work of their own, and linked Fares to the nick-of-time rescue.
“It’s crazy. I didn’t remember him that much,” Fares said. “I mean, it’s been five years. Actually, I kind of forgot about the incident, because you know, you go through so many different incidents on the job, so I just moved on and continued with the daily work.”
Fares said he was driving home from work after a shift when he saw a car slam into Leon’s vehicle.
“I saw smoke, and then I saw his car veer off to the right,” the detective said. “When I saw the smoke, I just pulled up in front of his car and went out and I grabbed him — and now I think the flames came up after — but I just pulled him out and got him to safety.”
Although he said he hasn’t thought about it much since, Fares said he was glad his heroics inspired the man he saved.
”It was very touching,” Fares said to Leon. “It’s something you should be very proud of, all the training you went through. And, you know, it’s an inspiration for others that you did this because you had an incident that you remember.”
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