9/11 hero is honored by both an officer he saved and an officer he inspired

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN (PIX11) -- A Port Authority Police Department officer who gave his life while saving the life of a fellow officer on 9/11 was memorialized in an unorthodox way on Monday.

The officer whose life was saved was able to meet the best friend of the officer who saved him. That best friend, in turn, is also a police officer on the West Coast, who says that he was inspired to become a cop when his best friend, to whom he became close back when they both had worked in a New York City public school, lost his life on Sept. 11, 2001.

The fallen officer was Dominick Pezzulo. He was based out of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and on 9/11, he and a handful of other officers secured an MTA bus and drove down to ground zero to help save lives. 

One of those fellow officers on 9/11 was Will Jimeno. When the first tower fell on Sept. 11, he and a sergeant who was with him, John McLoughlin, got trapped under debris on the concourse under the towers. Two other officers who had been with them were killed. Pezzulo was relatively unhurt and was trying to free Jimeno and McLoughlin when the second tower fell. It ended up trapping Pezzulo as well and fatally injuring him.

The two other Port Authority Police Department cops, Jimeno and McLoughlin, were able to survive thanks to Pezzulo's efforts, and they were ultimately among the 11 people who rescuers were able to extract from the rubble. 

On Monday, Jimeno was part of a most unique tribute to Pezzulo at the roll call of Pezzulo's former command. 

His best friend, Joe Cirrito, had been invited to address the two dozen or so officers on the evening watch and to meet Jimeno. 

Cirrito is also a law enforcement officer in the Los Angeles Police Department. He serves there because of Pezzulo's inspiration, he said. 

"The selflessness, the sacrifice that he made," Cirrito said in an interview, "That's what he taught me. That's what I teach the younger officers."

He and Pezzulo became close when the two were both deans and teachers at Lehman High School in the Bronx in the late 1990s. 

Pezzulo ended up joining the Port Authority Police Department, and Cirrito moved to Los Angeles. When his best friend passed away on 9/11, Cirrito joined the police department in Southern California. 

Cirrito was familiar with Jimeno's story of survival through a variety of sources, including how it was highlighted in the 2006 Oliver Stone film "World Trade Center."

On Monday, 23 years after Pezzulo, the man who so profoundly affected the lives of the two men, had passed away, Cirrito and Jimeno met at the roll call for Pezzulo's former command. 

They said that the meeting was profound and that it was an important, new chapter in an ongoing quest to make the saying "Never Forget" remain true and real.

"The way we never forget anyone is by saying their name," Jimeno said in an interview, "and we're blessed that Joe and so many other people say Dominick's name."

Cirrito has also become a long-distance runner for charitable causes, logging thousands of miles -- in his full service gear -- to raise money for nonprofits. He said that he feels Pezzulo's presence every day, including in every run. 

On Monday, Cirrito gave a flag that he carried with him on one of his first runs to Pezzulo's command. 

The officers applauded and saluted. Sandwiches were handed out, and they were back on duty, just like Pezzulo was, every day, until his end of watch on 9/11.