Saturday morning, an emergency surgery was performed.
“It went really well,” Catrina emphasized, “but then he was
in the hospital for five days needing a blood transfusion. Hap-
pily, he was able to return home before his birthday (Jan. 20).”
There are a few things everyone should know about Micco:
First, his disease does not define him, and it certainly doesn’t
hold him back.
“He is my wild child,” Catrina described. “He loves every-
thing that’s fast and full-impact, like race cars.”
Second, his favorite of all fast and full-impact things is the
police.
“He’s always been obsessed with police officers and police
cars,” she added. “Any time we drive somewhere, he calls out
when he sees one and waves to them. I don’t know what it is
about police officers. He just loves them.”
Before the accident, Micco’s father Mike had reached out to
some of his friends in the West Orange PD to see if they could
surprise Micco for his upcoming birthday with a visit from an
officer. But when word got out about what happened on Jan.
11, West Orange Police Chief James Abbott reached out to his
Verona counterpart, Chief Chris Kiernan.
“When we heard everything Mike and Catrina were going
through, and that Micco wanted to see a police car, we said,
‘That’s easy – anything we can do to ease their burden is a
no-brainer,’” explained Kiernan, a past Local 72 President.
Verona didn’t send one police car to Micco’s house. Seven
showed up.
“I said, ‘Let’s blow it up and make it bigger,’” declared Vero-
na Lieutenant Robert Shafer, who was the superior officer on
duty the Sunday of Micco’s birthday.
A department-wide text went out, and the response was
overwhelming.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 40
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ FEBRUARY 2019 39