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TH E PORT AUTHORITY O F N Y & I N J Bucks l ip

TO: Lt. Ed G u t c hFROM: Det. Edw ard RappDATE: December 15, 2001SUBJECT: Terrorist At tack - Sept. 11, 2001 - ResponseREFERENCE: AMOF# 64-01COPY TO:Synopsis: 9/H Personal Privacy

On September 11 , 2001 th e undersigned was work ing the 7x3 tour at JFK Airport. I was at thePolice Desk at around 0855 wh en a P.O. behind th e desk said that a p lane had hit the WTC. Thetelevision was turned on and we all saw the incident. I then went into the Detectives office andnotified D/Sgt. Boris Perdomo. We all got our gear and jum ped into our cars and drove to theWTC at approx . 0905 hrs. P.O. Kevin Ward and myse lf drove in my car. While driving on theBelt Parkway, by Pennsylvania Avenue we could see the North tower of the WTC with heavyblack smoke billo win g out. By the Mill Basin Bridge we saw a fireball come out of the southtower. It was the second plane hit ting the tower. There was paper debris floating to the groundfrom the explosion at the Ocean Parkway exit of the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn. At approx. 0930we made it to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel where th e Tunnel Officers had the west tu be shutdown in the middle. We entered in the outbound lanes; drove ha l fway around stopped traffic andthen switched to the inbound lanes to make it through.At 0935 we drove onto West Street and were heading towards the Trade Center. In front of th eMarriott Financial center Hotel, near Maiden, ^ane^ \Now I knew tI stopped the car and backed up to Rector Street an d parked the car there so emergency vehicleswou ldn't block us in. We exited the vehicle, put on our PAPD raid jackets an d assessed the area.Right behind us on the southeast corner of West an d Rector Street was a landing gear assemblyfrom an aircraft lying against the curb and some scaffolding. There were people running towardsus from the WTC and we were directing them to contin ue south, away from the Trade Center,an d to keep calm. Some people coul dn't walk to well so we assisted them down Rector Street,next to buildings to awa it mo re help. Looking up at the Trade Center I could jus t see thedestruction of Tower #2. There was a huge section of floors missing and there was flames andsmoke coming out. I was in awe staring at the destruction.JFK Detectives, D/Sgt. Perdomo, Det's M . Molina, J. Trotter, POs K. Ward, J. Cumyn, an dmyself then grouped together and attem pted to respond to the PAPD C omm and Post. We wereinformed that it was on the comer of Barclay Street and West Street. We walked north on WestStreet towards the Trade Center. On southbound West Street at Cedar lane, there was a PAPDPolice Acad emy van with its lights on and window open. I went to the van and shut th e lights off

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T H E PORT AUTHORITY OF NY & N J B u c k s l i pand closed th e windows. There were no keys in the ign i t ion , bu t there was a gym bag in theback seat. (Later I secured th e bag, it belonged to P.O. P. Ju rg ens ) As we were walking norththere was a lot of debris and numerous bodies fa l l ing from th e towers. You would take te n stepsand see another body falling from the top and then hear the sound of the body hit t ing the g r ound .W e couldn't make it safely on West St. between the Financial Center and Towers 1 & 2. W ediverted to around the back of the Financial Center, cau t i ou s ly expecting a secondary device orexplosion.We finally made it to Greenwich Street an d Park Place heading towards Barclay Street. J u s twalk ing around you felt uneasy about getting hit by fall ing objects. W e looked up at the NorthTower and you could see the black smoke and flames. People were hanging out windowswaving clothing. There you would see, what I believe, was the most amount of people fal l ing orj u m p i n g out. We were on the ground looking up feeling helpless, unable to do anything for thesepeople.I went cautiously to Barclay Street to see if the command post w as there while rest of the groupstood by at Greenwich and Park Place. I could not find th e command post so I went back with th eothers. Right when I got back there was a loud roar that sounded like another Jetliner coming atus. We all ran, pushing each other and civilians into a building on the northeast corner ofGreenwich and Park Place. We ran into the back of the bu i l d ing and the noise outside soundedl ike another aircraft crashing into the Trade Center. Then we had a total 'black out' which thenturned to a 'white out'. We stayed inside for what seemed like 10 minutes but was probably only1-2 minutes and then we tried to get onto the street to make our way to the incident. We exitedthe building but was overcome with smoke and the white dust from the Trade Center. We had togo back inside to wait for the dust to settle because you couldn't see in front of you. We were soanxious though that we only stayed another m inu te inside and then went onto the street. Outsidethe building there were people walking around in a daze. We helped some people to gonorthbound on Greenwich Street where there were some ambulances stationed. At this t ime wefound out that the south tower had collapsed. In the confusion of helping people to theambulances and the dust clouds some of us became separated from each other. Our police radiowouldn't work now. The channel display kept flashing 'scan'.Now there were only three of us together, Det. J. Trotter, P.O. K. Ward and myself. I cursed outthe others for not staying together. We knew that the other Detectives were out of the bu i ld ingand on the street helping others, but we were worried that if one tower fell the other one couldalso. With communications down we had to try to find our way to the Command Post. Wewalked west on Vesey Street going upwind towards the Hudson River. We recollected ourselvesat North End Avenue and Vesey Street. While standing there you would look up to the NorthTower and see dozens of people, one or two at a time leaping out of the tower and fall ing to theground. Most of the bodies fell straight down to the ground. I recall one body get caught in adraft and literally sail one or two blocks away to the northeast. You would feel morbid bywatching but it was so unbelievable that you couldn't look away. We tried to use the policeradios again but they were sti l l down. I used my nextel phone to call the JFK Police desk to givethem the names of the Detectives who had responded. While I was on the phone with Stacy atth e Police Desk we all of the sudden heard metal creaking. I looked up and saw the North Tower

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TH E PORT AUTHORITY OF NY & N J B u c k s l i pbuck l ing from the t op . It looked l ike th e north and west sides of the bui ld in g were twis t ing andthen separat ing like a bana na pee l. We ran for cover and heard th e bu i ld ing fall to the g round .This t im e th e area turned black from smoke and debris . It looked l ike i t was twelve o 'c lock atnight . You saw smoke and debris come rushin g in between th e bui ld ings at y o u , l ike in the m o v i eIndependence Day. There were people walking towards us from th e trade center all covered indust. W e directed people to the promenade where there were rescue boat s t ak ing peop le to theJersey shoreline. W e began wa lk ing towards th e area but the smoke kep t us back . W e tried towalk around th e financial center to gain access from a different way. We ran in to a PA emp loy ee ,Greg Burn ham , who said that he was the PA 's Chief Technical Officer. W e asked him if he wasall right and tried to assist h im . He had told us that he had walked down from the 71" floor. Hewas anxious to get to the PA Comm and Post, and we told him we were too. He walked with usfo r awh ile but then separated from us. The gro un d now wa s covered with 3-4 inches of gray dus tand powder. I t was l ike a war zone in B eirut you w ould see on the 6 O'clock news. There werepapers a ll over th e ground by the ma rina . None of t hem were burn t . Main ly computer paper andsome personal papers . W e found a Long Island man ' s cancelled checks on the ground alon g withother business papers. There were no solid objects, furniture, office equipm ent , or bodies on theground. The air was still thick wit h dust m ak in g it hard to breathe. W e tried to see the TradeCenter area from the Financial Center but the area was st ill blacked out w ith smo ke. W e cam eacross a NYC Firefighter who was w alk ing in a daze. He was a young man who said that t h i swas his first 'call' as a firefighter. He was shaking and nervous, as we al l were. W e walked wi t hhim get ting him water to drink and let t ing him use my pho ne to call his wife. W e walked to thewaterl ine where we reun i t ed him with Firefighters from another comp any fo r t hem to watch overh im. W e con t inued walk in g sou th but got diverted due to a gas m ain leak at the mar ina . W e mad eit around Battery Park City and grouped up with a PAPD bus at Rector St. and West Street.Inside were POs Egbert ,Gill ings and a female CPP Officer. Then we m et up w ith Det . C.Giglia. W e heard that th e Comm and Post was now on Warren an d Church Street. So, the four ofus, Det's Trotter, G iglia, P.O. K. W ard and mys elf walked the streets around the Trade Centertowards Warren Street. PO's Egbert and Gill in gs were s taying with the bus a t Rector Street. Onth e eastside of the Trade Center we again met up with PA employee Greg Burnham and this t imewe m ade sure he s tayed with us. W e ma de i t to W arren an d Church Streets and had found outthat th e staging area was now at the Borough of Manhat tan Community College. The five of uswalked to the college to check in. Mr. B u m h a m was dropped off at the PAPD M obile Com ma ndPost and the rest of us checked in at the gym wh ere we had our eyes washed out and grouped upwith rest of the Detective Squad. This was at appro xim ately 1500 hrs.This is not a complete and detai led report concerning m y experience on September 1 1, 2001.This is jus t what I remem ber these days. I tried to be as accurate as possible. Things tha t I didwrite abo ut are vivid in my m emory /

jThere are probably a lot of facts and incide ntsthat I did not recall wh en wri t ing this report . Maybe tomorrow I wil l remem ber them or m a y b e Iwon ' t .PORT AUTHORITY POLICEPride Service Dist inct ion 9/11 Personal Privacy