PHILADELPHIA — At the Hero Thrill Show on Sept. 20, Officer Patrick McDonald approached Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and asked how many promotions to the rank of sergeant were coming.
Where, the commander inquired, did the young officer from the Highway Patrol Unit stand on the civil service list?
No. 12, McDonald answered.
"I was thinking of making 11," Ramsey replied, with the driest humor.
It would be the last time the commissioner would see McDonald alive.
Three days later, the eight-year veteran of the force was fatally gunned down after making a traffic stop in North Philadelphia.
Yesterday, McDonald's parents and sister accepted a framed certificate from Mayor Nutter and the commissioner during a City Hall ceremony promoting 12 officers to sergeant, including the 30-year-old McDonald. His chair held his hat, white gloves, and a red rose.
For the first time in the department's history, an officer was promoted posthumously. The audience of more than 200, which crowded the reception room and spilled into the hallways, marked the event with a standing ovation.
In the ornate room, capped with a gilded ceiling, 11 officers sat stiff-backed during a ceremony filled with as much happiness and pride as somberness for the empty seat. The back of the hall was lined with McDonald's fellow Highway Patrol officers.
McDonald deserved the promotion, Ramsey acknowledged. "I do believe in God," he said. "I do believe in the afterlife. I believe in angels. Pat is here with us today. And he's looking over every single one of us."
Both the mayor and commissioner have spent hours with the families of police officers recently killed – five within the last two years, three of them this year – and have been strong advocates for the mourning members of the department.
The city is "sick and tired" of the violence officers face, Nutter told those about to be promoted. "People care about the Philadelphia Police Department and people care about you. You are appreciated."
Nutter recalled his conversation with Ramsey at the home of McDonald's parents, Larry and Patricia, the weekend after the slaying. Ramsey asked the mayor if McDonald could be included, because his instincts told him it was the "right thing to do."
Looking across the front row yesterday, Ramsey spoke to the officers in a sometimes fatherly tone, telling them, "I am proud of each and every one of you."
As sergeants, he said, they had crossed a threshold where they are responsible for their own behavior as well as those they supervise.
And, as he had in the past, the commissioner vowed that he will never forget McDonald.
Following their promotions, the officers turned to face the crowd. Newly promoted Sgt. Rosemary Petro choked back tears as she smiled at her husband, Larry Ryder. He later said that his wife had prepared for nine months for the sergeant's exam, sometimes spending hours in their Chevrolet Neon for a quiet place to study.
Larry McDonald said after the ceremony that his son had picked a career he loved. If he could, he said, his son would tell his colleagues to enjoy the night and the next several weeks – then start studying for the lieutenant's exam.
Others promoted were Jeffrey Hickson, Kenneth Gill, Nashid Akil, Christopher Morton, George Mullen, Mark Palma, Marc Hayes, Benjamin Baynard, Andrew Horn and Christopher Binns.