NYPD detective receives shield of grandfather killed in '77
An NYPD officer inherited his hero late grandfather’s gold shield Tuesday when he was elevated to the rank of detective at a promotions ceremony in Queens.
Scott McDevitt, 28, is the grandson of Henry McDevitt, a detective in the Bronx who was killed when he fell from a ladder while responding to a burglary call on June 26, 1977.
Henry’s son and Scott’s dad, Bill McDevitt, was 10 when his father died.
Bill told The Post he had mixed feelings initially about his son’s decision to join the department and become a detective like his grandfather.
“I wasn’t crazy about it at first, having lost my dad at 10,” Bill McDevitt said.
“My mom wasn’t thrilled about it at first, either,” he said. “But once we knew that that’s really what [Scott] wanted to do, we of course backed him on it.”
Bill’s mother, Scott’s grandmother, has since died, but Bill attended his son’s promotion ceremony at the NYPD Academy.
Newly promoted NYPD Detective Scott McDevitt wears his hero grandfather’s shield.
Scott had previously been wearing his grandfather’s patrolman’s badge.
“We’re very proud of him and ecstatic that he’s now giving up his patrolman’s badge, which was my father’s, and getting his detective badge,” Bill said of Scott.
Bill McDevitt said his father died as “he and his team were going into an apartment building” to check out a report of a burglary.
“Two of the guys went through the front door, and he was on a ladder going in through the window,” Bill said of his father. “The ladder gave way.”
His dad tried to grab onto window-washer equipment, but it didn’t hold him and he fell, shattering his leg.
Henry McDevitt, a father of five, had emergency surgery but died from a blot clot at the hospital.
Bronx Detective Henry McDevitt was killed in a fall while responding to a burglary call in 1977.
“They called him ‘Pappy’ because he already had five sons when he joined the department,” his son recalled.
After Bill’s dad died, Bill’s mom became deeply involved with what is now Survivors of the Shield, a nonprofit that offers “assistance to the widows, widowers & children of NYPD Officers killed in the performance of their duties,” according to its Instagram account. Bill spent parts of his summers and vacations with other families who lost their police officer loved ones.
“It was one of those things where you just knew that everyone was in the same boat,” Bill said of the experience.
A street-renaming ceremony for Detective Henry McDevitt was held at West 14th Street and Long Island Avenue in Deer Park, LI, in 2021.
Source: New York Post
