Retired Bronx detective loooks back on 9/11
his career, he worked at the Bronx
District Attorney’s Offi ce and the
Detectives’ Endowment Association.
Sept. 11, 2001
Cipullo was in Howard Beach in
Queens as he and the Association
were preparing to endorse Peter Vallone
for mayor. Suddenly, the president
of the Association received a
text saying a plane hit the World
Trade Center but told everyone it
was just an accident. But, then a second
plane struck the towers and everyone
knew the city was under attack.
“A lot of us went up to the roof and
saw the towers burning,” Cipullo
said. “I see a big cloud of smoke and
thought the fi re department must be
putting out one of the fi res and the
guy next to me says ‘Vic that building
just collapsed.’ I said ‘holy s–t.’”
From there everyone took off and
headed to Ground Zero or to their precincts
where they were instructed on
how they could help out. Cipullo was
told since he was not in full uniform,
he could not go to Ground Zero, so he
quickly changed and drove straight
to Lower Manhattan.
“As I got there, I saw guys with
shovels and I got in line with them,”
he said. “Everything was gray there,
there was no color.”
One of the fi rst days he found the
body of a construction worker with a
missing arm. He told the people digging
that they needed to fi nd his arm,
so they could give the whole body to
his family. Cipullo kept digging and
did, in fact, unearth a cold clammy
hand and the rest of the arm under a
large steel plate.
The turning point for him was
when he was 15-20 feet in the hole
of the blast site and began fi nding
menus from the restaurant in the
Towers Windows on the World.
“That’s when it dawned on me;
100 fl oors came down and I’m in this
pile,” Cipullo said. “And it dawned
one me that I’m not going to fi nd anyone
alive.”
Yet he returned everyday, sometimes
digging for eight hours and
other days much longer. He saw fi rst
responders from as far as Las Vegas
and as close as Connecticut.
Today, Cipullo volunteers at the
Bronx Zoo, helps the homeless and
does work in the community. He
doesn’t speak about 9/11 often, but
ultimately is grateful to be alive. He
wonders what might have happened
if he had gone straight to Ground
Zero when the second tower fell.
“In hindsight I feel lucky, and I
think about the people that called in
sick or were late for work, or whatever
reason they weren’t there when
the towers came down,” Cipullo said,
“How lucky they were.”
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Retired Bronx Det. Victor Cipullo refl ects on
the 20-year anniversary of 9/11.
Photo Jason Cohen
the microfi lm unit. From there he
worked at the 43rd Precinct in the
Bronx and the 24th Precinct in Harlem.
Then from 1974-1982 Cipullo
covered narcotics when freebasing,
overdosing and murders exploded.
“Everyday was an adventure,” he
said.
In 1982, Cipullo was promoted
to detective at the 50th Precinct in
Riverdale, where he was stationed
until 1986. And for the remainder of
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BY JASON COHEN
For more than 40 years Victor
Cipullo saw hundreds of drug overdoses
and murders as a cop, yet nothing
could have prepared him for
what he witnessed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Cipullo, 72, of Riverdale, retired
from the NYPD in 2012 after a long
career as a detective and as the former
vice president of the Detectives’
Endowment Association.
He arrived at Ground Zero not
long after the second tower fell and
it felt like he was in an old black and
white horror movie, he said. People
were covered in ash, there was a big
gaping hole in the ground and it was
“organized chaos.”
Cipullo stayed there for three
months, initially hoping to fi nd survivors
but ultimately digging up remains.
“In my mind it was something I
had to do,” he told the Bronx Times.
“I keep thinking there’s going to be
people in there trapped and alive.”
According to Cipullo, what made
him go back to Ground Zero each
day was the support from fellow New
Yorkers. On his way home up the
Westside Highway, American fl ags
were hung and people cheered everyday
for fi rst responders.
Cipullo grew up in the Edenwald
projects, joined the academy in 1968
and his fi rst assignment was in
Real Estate Health Home Design
Education Elder Care Finances
and much more....
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