Honoring the Legacy of Detective Steven McDonald

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, everybody knows that WABC is a supporter of the NYPD and a very interesting month this month. And with us this morning is Susan Brembaum, who’s the President and CEO of the New York City Police Foundation, and also Mary Murphy who was a veteran TV producer and made a documentary about a great hero cop Stephen McDonald was

0:26 shot July twelfth, nineteen eighty six, and when we showed the documentary, it was July twelfth, twenty twenty six, the fortieth year and the first three. Stephen McDonald died ten years ago, and this week was a special event. The NYPD this week officially named the Police Academy the NYPD Stephen D. McDonald Police Academy. Well, Susan Burmbaum, you’ll go first.

0:55 Speaker 2 Okay, Hi John, how are you?

0:57 Speaker 1 I’m good good.

0:59 Speaker 2 So well, we had the opportunity to fund to help fund this film, and I met with Mary Murphy and John, I came to you and asked you to also support this film. And that’s because we felt it was important because the New York City Police Foundation’s focus has always been on supporting the men and women of the NYPD

1:19 and helping ensure they have the tools and the training and the resources they need to keep New York City safe. Detective McDonald’s life embodies these values. His message of compassion, forgiveness and community engagement reflect the ideals of the Foundation, and we felt it was important that the next generation of officers could learn about Stephen McDonald’s life. And so

1:41 when Mary Murphy came to me and Scott Munroe from the DEEA came to me and said can you help us with this film, we were proud to help support it. And John also thank you for also giving us some funding to help support this film.

1:55 Speaker 1 Well, it was a pleasure to do that because WABC and myself you always support the New York Police Foundation, of Police Athletic League, in all NYPD in general, and with us today. Also as Mary Murphy who did the documentary film, would you talk, would you say a few things. Yes.

2:15 Speaker 3 First of all, John, thank you very much for the donation you made earlier this year, because that allowed us to actually edit the film and buy some of the historical footage that we needed to really make it a complete documentary. And Susan is the one who really started the ball rolling for us, because I was working with

2:32 Aaron Mulvey, who’s a retired federal agent from the Drug Enforcement Administration. I knew that to make a documentary, it’s more than just writing it and directing it. You have a whole host of other duties, and that included fundraising.

2:46 So Aaron and I went to Susan, we went to Scotland Roe, and we went to private individuals, and we were able to do this in phases. We started two years ago actually on this project. I was a young reporter twenty seven years old in nineteen eighty six. Stephen was twenty nine, and when he was shot it was

3:04 just heartbreaking. I mean, he’s paralyzed from the neck down, his young wife is pregnant about to have a baby a few months later, and his story always stayed with me. So when Stephen died thirty and a half years later, I knew he had lived a remarkable life, but I didn’t feel enough of us really knew about that life

3:23 and the struggles that he went through on a day to day basis. So I thought a film was warranted. And if it wasn’t for you and all those individuals, we wouldn’t have been able to do it.

3:35 Speaker 1 Understood now there was also a bigger event this week besides the documentary last week. Tell Us about it at the tell Us about it.

3:48 Speaker 3 The event with the screening, we had a private screening or are you talking about the dedication of the Police against.

3:53 Speaker 1 I’m talking about we had the private screening I believe last week and this week you had the dedication of the Police Academy.

4:00 Speaker 3 Yes, So we wanted to thank the people who had donated and the people that appeared in the film, So we arranged to have a private screening at Marymount School of New York and the people could give feedback if they felt we needed to address certain areas of the film that could be tighter. And it was a very

4:18 very good screening, wonderful response from the people there, very emotional film, but we also cover a lot of history. That’s really what the goal was to show that, you know, Stephen not only helps people by speaking at precincts about tactical safety on the job, but he spoke to tens of thos hundreds of thousands of school children over those

4:39 thirty and a half years that he spent in the chair, and he changed a lot of lives. He went overseas, he traveled to Northern Ireland multiple times in the late nineties after the Good Friday Peace Award was announced and he tried to bridge the gap between the Catholics and the Protestants. He went there a week after a terror

4:58 bombing that killed twenty nine civilians and two unborn babies, and he just felt it was the right thing to do. So the screening was important. We got feedback on the film, but now the goal is to address the feedback, but also to get the distribution. His story should be heard.

5:16 Speaker 1 I agree with you one hundred percent. Susan Brumba. Were you there too when they had the dedication of the dedication?

5:26 Speaker 2 Yes, I was at the screening and I was also at yesterday’s the naming of the NYPD Police Academy after Detective McDonald. Commissioner Tish renamed the academy and put up new signage outside which was unveiled his son, Connor, who’s a member of the service, and his widow Patty and McDonald shared their story yesterday with recruits, former police commissioners

5:55 and former drivers of Stevens and with many members of the NYPD, including the mayor, and they want every recruit who comes into that building to know the story of the life of Stephen McDonald’s as he spent thirty years in a wheelchair, for giving the shooter and forgiving going around the world sharing his message.

6:22 Speaker 1 Well, thank you, Susan Burnbaum and thank you Mary Murphy. And when do you think this documentary’s going to be able to be seen by the rest of of the world.

6:34 Speaker 3 What we’re doing is we are submitting to film festivals and the hope is that if it gets into a film festival, a distributor might see it and want to get it around the world. We want a global audience to see this, so that’s that’s what we’re doing right now.

6:50 We also have a website which gives a lot of background on Stephen and his life, and that’s Trinityfilms NYC dot com.

7:00 Speaker 1 Trinity said again, TRINITYFILMSNYC dot com.

7:04 Speaker 3 Yes, he was Stephen’s favorite book, so we named our little company after him because we needed to have an entity that could create a website and get the word out about Steven’s life.

7:18 Speaker 1 Well, thank you so much for both of you coming on the Susan Brunbaum, the New York Police Foundation does wonderful work, and Mary Murphy it’s good to meet you again, and thank you for doing what you did, and we’ll catch up again real soon.

7:34 Speaker 3 Thank you very much for everything, John, Thank you