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Mount Vernon police officer commits suicide at work www.privateofficer.com
Mount Vernon police officer commits suicide at work http://www.privateofficer.com
On Monday, Vize, who was late for work – the first infraction he had ever committed in his brief, bright career – parked his Honda Civic on the top of the municipal lot across the street from police headquarters in Roosevelt Square and apparently shot himself once.
“You hear people say you would never see it coming, but with this kid, you would never see it coming,” said Adinaro, who was with the grieving family. Adinaro is close to Vize’s father, who was the best man at his wedding.
“This kid was like a son to me,” said Adinaro. “There are a lot of broken hearts here.”
Vize is from a large family of police officers that include his father, Lt. John Vize of New Castle; a sister, Jennifer, who is an officer with the county police; an uncle, Alfred, who is a Mamaroneck police officer; and another uncle, Edmund, an officer with the Irvington police department.
“His entire family has been devoted to public service,” said Mount Vernon police Commissioner David Chong. “It is a complete shock to us. No one saw it coming. He was a kid with unlimited potential.”
Sgt. Kevin Mandel, president of the Mount Vernon Police Association, said police on the 207-member force are hurting.
“They are heartbroken,” said Mandel. “It is a combination of factors. A fellow officer had died, and a few months ago it was Christopher (Detective Christopher Ridley). It is just devastating.”
Chong declined to say if a suicide note was left.
Mount Vernon Mayor Clinton Young said the impact of Vize’s death, coupled with that of Ridley earlier this year, has been devastating to the city and the force.
“We are all feeling saddened, having lost two young police officers this year,” said Young.
Vize, who was a member of Emerald Society of Westchester, a well-known police band, lived with his parents in Lake Mohegan. He was assigned to the Patrol Division since he was appointed in January 2007.
He was supposed to be at work Monday but was late, leading police to call his home, where he was sleeping. His father woke him, and Vize left for work. Members of the department began looking for him when he didn’t arrive.
Chief James Dumser, who knew Vize’s father when he worked as a Mount Vernon police officer years ago, found Vize’s body in his car at 2:30 p.m. on the third level of the garage.
Dumser, who also has sons who are police officers, had to break the news to his friend and former fellow officer.
“It was very tough,” said Dumser. “I knew the kid. He was a big, handsome, fun-loving kid.”
Some officers lit candles where Vize died yesterday.
Grief counselors from the county department of Emergency Services were brought into the department, as were clergy members, to help officers cope with the loss.
Vize worked Sunday and no one detected anything different about him, authorities said.
“He was laughing and joking the day before,” Chong said.
Vize, graduated from Lakeland High School where he played baseball and basketball. He went to SUNY in Cortland but left a year early to join the Mount Vernon police department.
News of Vize’s death rocked Lakeland High School, where he distinguished himself as scholar-athlete.
His former baseball coach, Dennis Robinson, Lakeland’s athletic director, said Vize was awarded his team’s Foxhole Award for four straight years, meaning his teammates counted him as the one person they’d want to be in a foxhole with.
Robinson took the news hard and found himself questioning it over and over Monday night.
“You’re numb,” he said. “When you first hear it, I kept on questioning: ‘Is he injured? Are we sure?’ I just kept on questioning that. I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to hear that he’d passed away. I just kept wishing that it was another situation or whatever.”
Vize took Robinson’s son, also named Danny, under his wing when Vize was a senior and Danny Robinson was a freshman.
He said while Vize wasn’t a world-class athlete, he was a world-class individual.
“I had faculty members, heads in their hands, just bawling,” Robinson said. “He was part of the family. He was definitely part of the family.”
Police cars and other vehicles lined the quiet residential street off Cortlandt’s busy Route 6 commercial district, where Vize’s family lives.
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