Officers Make A Return Call

A 6‑year-old boy answered the door. ​“My mommy’s not moving,” he told the officers. ​“She’s not breathing.”

Police Officer Leslee ​“Choco” Witcher and firefighter Erika Bogan (pictured) were among the officers on that 10:30 a.m. call two weeks ago on Sherman Avenue.

They were responding to a 911 call the boy had made.

Bogan looked at the mother’s body on the floor. ​“I hope it’s not what he says it is,” she said. ​“Maybe she’s diabetic. Maybe she fainted.”

Another officer took the boy to a different room while medics took care of the body. The boy’s mother had died. The boy had been the only other person home.

The boy’s aunt arrived; the boy had thought to call her as well as 911. Bogan and Witcher spoke with her in the kitchen. The two public-safety officers’ eyes met for a moment. Unspoken words passed; a bond was formed. Despite their extensive experience on their jobs — Witcher’s been a cop for 17 years, Bogan a firefighter for 16 — neither had experienced many calls like this one.

Following the call, a critical-incident counselor came to help Bogan and fellow firefighters process the tragedy. Officer Witcher sought out colleagues on her own to work through it.

She and Bogan found each other texting and calling each other. They couldn’t get the little boy out of their minds.

“This little boy, he knew enough to call 911,” Bogan said. ​“He is my hero. He is amazing to me.

“Your heart just breaks for him. He was so smart. He was so brave. Especially this time of year when everything’s about family. It just makes you want to dig a little deeper.”

Witcher paid repeated follow-up visits to the aunt’s home in Fair Haven. The 6‑year-old boy was living there now with her. The aunt told Witcher that the boy’s father had died, from heart-related problems, when the boy had been only 6 months old.

“Everyone pitched in” at the firehouse, suggesting a Christmas collection for the boy. At the police department, an officer named Nancy Jordan was readying an annual toy delivery at her church.

The deliveries came in two batches.

On Saturday, Officer Jordan and fellow members of Faith Baptist Church in West Haven dropped presents for the boy off at the aunt’s Fair Haven home. Officer Witcher came along. Jordan’s group makes a run like that, to New Haven families struck by tragedy, at this time every year. Jordan founded the project, called the Santa Sleigh Ministry. They made three stops in all this past weekend: to the little boy’s house; to the siblings of 17-year-old Taijhon Washington, who was shot dead earlier this year on Butler Street; and to the ​“four children of Luis Perez Sr., who was shot by a neighbor who was selling drugs in front of Perez’s residence in August 2014, which left the sole provider of the family paralyzed waist down, and unable to work,” Jordan said. (Click here and here read about deliveries in previous years.)

Meanwhile, Witcher and Bogan went shopping. Bogan collected over $550 from her fellow firefighters for toys for the 6‑year-old boy. Contributors included members of the Engine 9 crew members who had joined her on the call, including Lt. Robert Mullally, Cara Gould, Reginald Morton, Jerry Rynich, and Ryan Wysong. Bogan usually works out of Engine 5 in the Annex; she was working overtime when the call came. (AMR medic John Masci also responded to the call.)

Witcher spent $300 of her own on toys and clothing. Tuesday evening Witcher and Bogan planned to wrap all the presents and deliver them to Fair Haven on Wednesday afternoon.

At least some good can come out of tragedy, Witcher observed: in this case, the birth of a friendship.