Markeshia Ricks Photo
Forty-one years ago, members of the Black Liberation Army were robbing the New Haven Savings Bank in Westville. Police Officer Willie Bradley Sr. arrived at the scene — and what happened next changed his life forever.
Bradley, a U.S. Army veteran who fulfilled a dream when he became a police officer in 1968, was shot several times that day. He suffered career- ending injuries to his chest and right arm when he stepped out of his squad car that day.
Friends and family, who gathered to honor him Monday at New Haven police headquarters at 1 Union Ave., said he never gave up serving his community though his injuries caused him pain for the rest of his life.
Bradley’s picture went up Monday on the Above the Call of Duty Wall in the first-floor lobby. It will join those of other New Haven police officers who lost their lives or were permanently struck with debilitating injuries in the line of duty.
“Your husband’s good name has not been forgotten,” Police Chief Dean Esserman said during a dedication ceremony Monday.
Anthony Dawson recalled being a freshman at Lee High School when he heard that Bradley had been shot. “That was the most important year of my life,” he said.
Dawson, who now chairs the Board of Police Commissioners, was a young activist at the time marching on the mayor and the Board of Education. Bradley was one of the men who influenced him to work in the department’s summer youth program at 16 and pursue a professional path in security. “He was a special guy,” Dawson said.
The honor has been 15 years in the making, said Bradley’s widow, Rose Marie (pictured). Bradley died Aug. 9, 2000, after a year-long fight with cancer.
“I’m very proud and honored,” Rose Marie said. “It took a long time to get here, but I’m glad we’re finally here. And I know Willie is proud too. ” Family and friends had pushed to have Bradley honored after he died; previous administrations never got it done.
Bradley’s cousin Harold said that despite enduring two surgeries a year for much of his life to remove shotgun pellets from his body, Bradley continued to give back to the New Haven community.
“He taught computer skills and word processing,” Harold said. “He was instrumental in helping so many people gain good jobs with many of the insurance companies in the state. Nothing stopped him from serving his community.”
Mayor Toni Harp said often times people don’t think about what police officers and their families live with every day.
“They go out every day from their homes not knowing if they’re going to come back, and if they come back, not knowing if they will come back whole,” she said. “Officer Bradley paid the ultimate sacrifice when he was wounded — a wound he had to live with for the rest of his life.
“We are a grateful city because even after he was wounded he continued to work on behalf of this community,” Harp said.