Author: Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D.
By PoliceOne Staff SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — A Suffolk County Police sergeant died Oct. 4 of cancer he developed after responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, ODMP reported.
Sergeant Dennis W. Reichardt, 64, developed cancer after he spent three years searching through debris at Ground Zero and the Fresh Kills landfill after Sept. 11.
Reichardt was a 29-year veteran of the Suffolk County Police Department.
He is survived by his wife, three children and grandchild.
Seventy-two officers from eight local, state and federal agencies were killed on Sept. 11, 2001 when al Qaeda terrorists crashed four hijacked planes into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Heavy air contamination resulting from the attacks at Ground Zero has led to the illness and deaths of many first responders in the years following the incident.
