I was working for New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner when the unthinkable happened on Sept. 11, 2001.As a death investigator, I would usually go to an apartment or the streets to investigate a homicide, a suicide or an accidental death...
After some months my boss,
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Hirsch, called a meeting — even in the maw of death,
there must be meetings...- It wasn’t just what was in front of us; it was the loop of news videos that had been imprinted on all our minds over those terrible months.
- The worst of them, arguably, were those documenting the people falling out of the buildings’ highest windows, some 100 stories up...
As Dr. Hirsch spoke about those who died in the impact zone where the planes hit,
someone in the group made a reference to “the jumpers, the suicides.”My boss was always calm and dignified, but at that moment I saw the strain on his face as he tried to maintain his composure.
He put his hands flat on the table in front of him and said,
“Never use those words. Never.”- They were pushed out, he explained, by flames and smoke.
- Men and women were standing on the sills of the World Trade Center hoping for a miracle rescue, struggling for air to survive.
- They were clinging to the window frames, straining toward the sky to draw breath.
- Some lost their grip; some were forced to let go...
Suicide refers to “death at the hands of oneself with intent to die.”
Homicide is defined as “death at the hands of another.”
- It is a fact that terrorists pushed these people to their deaths, murdering them...