Paul Bass Photo
Officer Krause, who died Wednesday at 51.
The medical prognosis called for Wooster Square’s “officer of the year” to turn in his badge and pass quietly into the night.
Instead, he beat that prognosis, survived five years of grueling radiation and chemotherapy treatments for a brain tumor, got married, kept coming to work, and continued living a full life.
That triumphant second act in the life of New Haven cop Peter Krause finally came to an end Wednesday, when he died at the age of 51 after a long bout with brain cancer.
Thursday morning his fellow officers held a moment of silence at the weekly “Compstat” data-sharing strategy meeting at 1 Union Ave. in memory of a colleague whose determination to live and work served as an inspiration.
Krause earned the admiration of neighbors in Wooster Square in the years he walked a beat there, whether nabbing drivers who blew through stop signs or tracking down a repeat robber.
He tried to keep walking the beat after the discovery of a brain tumor. He was diagnosed with anapolastic oligoastrocytoma in 2006; doctors removed 90 percent of it.
The chemo wore him down. He refused to retire, so he kept working inside the department. And started a new married life. A Smilow cancer doctor, Kevin H. Becker, called Krause “one of our more remarkable patients” for his “ability to maintain a normal life in the face of such a treatment.” Colleagues at the police department rallied around him, raising money and raising, and being raised by, his spirit.
Krause twice was featured as a New Haven Independent “cop of the week.” Neighbors trusted him in Wooster Square when he walked the beat there; they fed him information to help him track quality-of-life offenses. In 2010 he was awarded an “officer of the year”/ “friend of Wooster Square” award at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Wooster Square Park.
Tribute From A Neighbor
Neighbor David Muniz hung out with Krause and helped him during Krause’s patrols in Wooster Square.
Wooster Square activist Peter Webster contributed this tribute to Krause:
He was a beloved figure in Wooster Square, our very own beat cop, and famous for moderating the speed and civility of motorists around the park, as well as standing motionless in the dark, in the park and surrounding streets, watching, listening, then quietly collaring.
I often gave him my own from-seed Heirloom tomatoes, and we would frequently talk about growing “stuff,” talking over the fence at our building.
During one such conversation, a young man walked past us on Wooster Place. Commonplace? No.
Officer Krause called out to him, asked, “What’s in your left rear pocket?”
“Nothing.”
“Let me see…”
A honking big clasp knife, hidden under a billowing shirt, deep in a deep pocket.
Officer Krause confiscated it, asked about his probation, asked him if he wanted him to share this incident with his grandmother.
“NO!”
“Then take it easy. I know where to find you.”
I asked him how he knew. I never saw him even take note of the young man.
“I know him. His walk changed when he saw me. He favored the side the knife was on. He walked funny. Just something. No big deal.”
Community policing. No big deal.
He knew the neighborhood, the people, the histories of the people. He knew tomatoes. He was a good guy.
The Historic Wooster Square Association presented him with the first ever Friend of Wooster Square Award at the Cherry Blossom Festival, an event he loved and protected.
He was taken by surprise. When he was called to the stage, he thought there might be a problem to deal with.
Probably one of the few times ever he was taken by surprise.
I thought of him frequently when he was transferred to other duties, and later, when he was stricken with brain cancer, went to a well-attended benefit, saw him often at police headquarters, working inside, doing police business, helping anyway he could. Modestly. As usual. A good guy.
He was my introduction to the way real police deal with the gazillion niggling details of social interactions, the good, the bad, the ugly.
I will miss him. We all will miss him.
Godspeed officer Krause.
We forget that despite our antics and hatred during this divisive presidential campaign, the recent racial issues our country has been going through, that in all of this, there is a common uniter. A common enemy to which we are all the good guy. That bad guy is cancer, and our negative and angry energies are so much better expended if we could just focus on beating this hideous monster that lives in all of our closets. Take a minute to remember that next time you feel the need to say something in anger. Remember that this man was taken by something inexplicably worse.
Rest in peace sir.