SAINT OF THE CITY

Saint of the City is a feature-length documentary film about the late NYPD Detective Steven McDonald.  

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Steven McDonald NYPD photo taken after the gunshot injury

 

McDonald witnessed an extraordinary amount of history during the 30 1/2 years he lived in his wheelchair, rendered quadriplegic by a bullet to the spine in 1986 in New York City's Central Park. His only child, Conor, was born six months after the shooting. McDonald's wife, Patti Ann, tearfully remembered, "Steven always said, 'Our story, it's Conor.'"  McDonald forgave the 15-year-old shooter, Shavod Jones, on the day his infant son was baptized and spent the next three decades speaking to school students and fellow cops about conflict resolution and safety tactics.

 

The New York Daily News devoted the entire front page to Steven McDonald when he died on January 10, 2017, calling him "God's Cop." 

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The detective's son, Conor, had followed his dad into the New York City Police Department in 2010. He eulogized his father during a funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral, calling Steven McDonald "our saint." Nearly ten years later, the filmmakers wanted to know why no public cause for sainthood in the Catholic Church had been initiated for Detective McDonald.  The answer surprised us.  

 

For two years, director Mary Murphy and producer Erin Mulvey have traced Steven McDonald's journey, after he suffered his debilitating injury.  They have traveled to Lourdes, France, where Steven initially sought healing in the spring waters at the religious shrine.  Instead of a physical cure, Steven underwent a spiritual transformation, returning to Lourdes more than a dozen times with young, disabled people like himself.

 

Murphy and Mulvey also traveled to Northern Ireland, where Steven and his family visited the site of the 1998 Omagh bombing, shortly after the terror attack killed 29 people and unborn twins.  Steven offered hope that the town could recover from catastrophe, as he did in his personal situation.  He also participated in peace talks in Belfast, a year after the Good Friday Accord was announced.   

 

McDonald would later visit sacred sites in Jerusalem and Medjugorje.  

 

This film is being completed during a year that will mark multiple, significant anniversaries.  In July, it will be forty years since Steven McDonald was shot, as the homicide rate soared upward in New York City during the crack cocaine epidemic. The NYPD Academy will be renamed for Detective Steven D. McDonald that week.  

 

This September 11 will be the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, when McDonald's close friend and priest, Father Mychal Judge, became the first listed casualty of the disaster at the downtown Twin Towers. Steven McDonald identified Father Mychal's remains that day at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Manhattan.  

 

In October, we will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the New York Mets winning the World Series. The relief pitcher, Jesse Orosco, gave a special gift to Steven McDonald at Bellevue Hospital and recalled their encounter for this documentary.

 

The film contains remarkable interviews with people from all walks of life who were touched by Steven McDonald.  We traveled to Denver, Colorado to meet the occupational therapist who taught Steven how to navigate his motorized wheelchair, using straws. Steven's physical therapist flew to New York practically every year for family celebrations and memorials tied to 9/11.

 

Steven McDonald was an avid New York Rangers hockey fan and witnessed the team win the 1994 Stanley Cup, enjoying the historic event with his wife and young son. The Rangers named an annual honor after the wounded officer in 1987, called the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award.

 

There are many remarkable moments in "Saint of the City," and one involves an interview with Hashim Garrett, who was shot in the spine at age 15 and was left paralyzed from the waist down. He met Steven McDonald at a New York City school, where the two were scheduled to speak about ways to defuse conflicts. Garrett was having trouble with the concept of forgiveness.  

 

"When I just watched Steven, when I watched him talk about his faith, when I watched him talk about love, he wasn't just talking about it," Garrett recalled.  "You could feel it, like, everything he said, he meant." Hashim has dedicated his life to helping others and recently received his Masters in Social Work.  

 

This film was made possible by generous grants from individuals and multiple, law enforcement organizations. The New York City Police Foundation provided a donation, along with the Detective's Endowment Association, Police Athletic League, and Tunnel to Towers.  

 

"Saint of the City" will bring viewers inside the deeply difficult world of Steven McDonald's day to day life after the shooting and also reveal the joy he found by living life to the fullest.  The epitaph on his tombstone defines the way he approached the remainder of his days, after tragedy struck:  "Love is the Way."