US3 min(s) read
Port Authority Police Officer Will Jimeno was assigned to the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue on September 11, 2001, when the sky suddenly went dark. Radios crackled with a code calling all officers back to the police desk, a command that almost never happened during the morning rush.
Looking up at the news monitor, Jimeno saw Tower 1 of the World Trade Center with a massive gaping hole in it. Moments later, he joined a team led by Sergeant John McLaughlin that boarded a commandeered bus straight into downtown Manhattan to help evacuate civilians.
When they arrived, the scene looked like a war zone littered with concrete, dust, airplane debris, and human remains. Jimeno, McLaughlin, and fellow officers Dominic Pezzulo, Antonio Rodriguez, and Christopher Amoroso rushed into the building equipped with Scott air packs to assist.
While they were inside a hallway near the lobby of Tower 2, the building collapsed around them with a sound Jimeno described as a million freight trains and the roar of the devil coming down.
Trapped beneath heavy concrete, Jimeno and his team faced immediate tragedy as Rodriguez and Amoroso were killed instantly. Pezzulo managed to free himself slightly, but a second collapse pinned him again, causing fatal injuries.
Before he died, Pezzulo fired a single shot from his sidearm into a hole above them to alert potential rescuers. Left pinned beneath the rubble alongside his sergeant, Jimeno battled severe thirst and agonizing pain for hours, holding onto his faith and the hope of seeing his pregnant wife, Allison, and their daughter again.
For nearly thirteen hours, Jimeno and McLaughlin kept each other focused on survival. With no formal training for such an extreme ordeal, the two men prayed and talked to maintain their resolve. At one point, believing he was about to die, Jimeno asked his sergeant to radio a message to his wife asking her to name their unborn baby Olivia.
Rescuers from the United States Marine Corps finally spotted the location of the trapped officers around 8:00PM Emergency workers labored for three hours to free Jimeno from the fallen structural debris, at one point hearing him offer to let them cut off his leg just to get him free.
After rescuers managed to free his leg without amputating it, they placed Jimeno onto a Stokes basket and lifted him out of the debris field. Looking up toward the sky, he noticed that the familiar skyline had completely transformed.
Speaking to People, he said: "I could see the moon, but I couldn't see the buildings. And I said, "Where is everything?" And a firefighter said, "It's all gone, kid."
Those three words, "It's all gone," completely broke the officer. Jimeno later shared that he had not cried when he was injured or when his fellow officers died beside him, but he wept instantly upon learning the towers were gone, feeling in that moment as though they had failed in their mission.
Jimeno and McLaughlin were two of only 18 people who survived inside the collapsed World Trade Center complex. Following his rescue, Jimeno underwent extensive surgeries, flatlined twice in the hospital, and underwent a long rehabilitation process to learn how to walk and dress himself again.
His daughter Olivia was born on his birthday, giving him a renewed sense of purpose. Though he struggled with survivor's guilt over the loss of his fellow officers, Jimeno chose to live every day in honor of those who did not make it. Looking back a quarter century later, he emphasizes that alongside the destruction, the ultimate legacy of that day was the courage and love shown by those who fought to save others.
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