Colón's Corner: In Remembrance?-?Officer Charles?Oddo

A tribute to another fallen NYPD Officer 27 years after his line of duty?death?

He was all of 33-years old. Having started his career as a Police Officer with the NYPD in 1990, Charlie Oddo was six years into the job & in the prime of both his career & his life. Service was in his blood. Well before joining the New York City Police Department, the East Northport, Long Island native was a volunteer fireman & paramedic assigned to the Commack Fire Department. With a background like that, extending his service to the people of the five boroughs was the logical next step.?

An officer of the broken windows era, Charles’ career began quite literally in the heart of the city as he was assigned to Manhattan’s 1st Precinct. Located more specifically in Lower Manhattan, the precinct served as Charlie’s home for the first five years of his career. His beat including iconic neighborhoods like SoHo, TriBeca, Wall Street, & a noteworthy landmark in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.?

While working in the 1st, he’d save the life of an elderly man who’d collapsed on a SoHo street rendering him life saving CPR. After those first five years, August of 1995 would mark a major step up in the career of Officer Oddo as he’d be assigned to the elite Highway Patrol Unit, joining Squad Two in Brooklyn. He’d achieved all of this with just over a half decade on the job. Without question, Charlie Oddo was a rising star in the NYPD.?

Then came February 17, 1996, a to that point quiet late winter Saturday afternoon. Over the radio just after lunch hour, a job had come in regarding a tanker spill on the Gowanus Expressway. It was bound to be a mess and for the commuters of the city, a long afternoon of being stuck in the classic bumper-to-bumper traffic that makes you want to rip your hair out. Taking on the assignment, he embarked on his way to provide safety & order to the situation & make it slightly less aggravating a process for all involved.?

Laying out flares and smartly positioning his patrol car to block the entrance ramp and direct oncoming motorists off the parkway, Officer Oddo provided both hand signals and verbal directions to the aforementioned motorists. As he did so, a drunk driver behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Blazer with complete carelessness for anyone’s safety barreled into the scene & struck Charlie, causing massive head & internal injuries.?

Airlifted to Bellevue Hospital, doctors worked frantically for two hours to save his life, but it was not to be. At just 33 years of age, Officer Oddo died. He had no wife or children, but he left behind his heartbroken parents as well as a brother and sister who undoubtedly still feel his loss nearly 30 years later. The selfish driver who struck him later arrested and charged in connection with his death.?

As mentioned in my previous column, no call in police work is ever routine. Who knows how many accidents Officer Oddo had responded to in his short time in Highway Unit 2? He followed proper tactics, he inculcated the necessary safety methods, he did nothing wrong. Yet while those methods are helpful for a police officer and serve to lessen to an extent the risks associated with responding to these calls, they do not serve as a complete shield from the extremes of the job that can appear at any given moment. In this case, that extreme being a drunk driver.?

Still, there’s no denying Charlie saved lives that day even if what he did was nothing out of the ordinary to the average eye. By laying down those flares, by blocking the entrance ramp with his patrol car, by providing clear instructions to fellow motorists, he shielded them from the impending and unforeseen danger. He prevented them from being caught in the same crosshairs of the impaired motorist who’d later kill him.?

He exhibited and performed the little, unnoticed details of the job that the public so often doesn’t seem to notice or care about that add up to the ultimate sacrifice. Since then, there’ve been many tributes. Officer Oddo’s memorial plaque hangs in Highway 2’s quarters on Flatbush Avenue, dedicated to his memory a year after his death on February 21, 1997.?

Additionally in June of 2000, the interchange comprising 65th through 67th street was renamed “Police Officer Charles Oddo Interchange”. In September of 1996, he was posthumously awarded the NYPD’s Purple Shield Medal. Lastly, in East Northport, his hometown, a park has been renamed after him. A chance for parents to tell curious children who may ask of the namesake of the sign about the man, his service, and his sacrifice.?

He didn’t seek the limelight; he didn’t sign on to be the poster boy of the department nor for fame and fortune. Charles Oddo signed up to be a New York City Police Officer because he wanted to simply do the right thing. And the right thing he did, consistently and professionally, from his first act to his last. Police Officer Charles Oddo died as he lived: in selfless service to his fellow human being.?

Mike Colón is the host of the Mic’d In New Haven Podcast which can be found on all podcast platforms and is simulcast in video form on YouTube