Flashlight

On the morning of 9/11, NYPD rookie officer, Shaun McGill and his partner responded to a 9-1-1 call at North End and Vesey Street, just outside of the Embassy Suites Hotel. Two cab drivers had gotten into a minor accident, and as McGill was taking down the report, he heard a massive explosion. With his gaze still focused at street level, he saw panic set in as people began running in every direction. Soon, he noticed that a building in the World Trade Center complex was on fire. He told his partner to call in the eyewitness report before heading toward the scene for a closer investigation.  

McGill proceeded to run across the West Side Highway and immediately began assisting with the evacuations inside the towers.

McGill was inside the 3 World Trade Center/New York Marriott World Trade Center hotel when the South Tower collapsed on top of the hotel, bringing much of the structure down with it. Finding himself in complete darkness, McGill began feeling his way around the floor and calling out before finding a handful of firefighters and Marriott security guards who had also survived the collapse. As McGill felt his way around his immediate environment, he miraculously happened upon a large, handheld flashlight. To his surprise, it turned on. Alongside the Marriott security guards, who knew their way around the building, the group began their careful evacuation.

McGill emerged at street level to a deserted disaster scene. As he walked along Greenwich Street, he saw a police officer from his precinct who told him to hop in her car. They drove a few blocks northwest of the World Trade Center and arrived at Stuyvesant High School, where a makeshift triage area had been set up in the auditorium. McGill recalled that he was stepping out of his colleague’s vehicle when someone observed that the North Tower was coming down. Finding himself amid chaos once again, McGill joined Stuyvesant’s teachers and others as they evacuated students to safety. Eventually, McGill decided to report back to his precinct. Upon his arrival, everyone was shocked to see him as he’d been presumed dead all morning. He had kept the flashlight with him the entire time.