Officer in Henry Gates flap tried to save Reggie Lewis

masuki bance

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Thu Jul-23-09 07:11 AM
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Officer in Henry Gates flap tried to save Reggie Lewis

Edited on Thu Jul-23-09 07:15 AM by masuki bance

*edit to add pic-

The Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtics superstar�s life 16 years ago Monday.

�I wasn�t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn�t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,� Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward�s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.

It�s a date Crowley still can recite by rote - and he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.

�Some people were saying �There�s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis� afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,� he said.

Crowley, 42, said he�s not a racist, despite how some have cast his actions in the Gates case. �Those who know me know I�m not,� he said.

Yesterday, Lewis� widow, Donna Lewis, was floored to learn the embattled father of three on the thin blue line of a national debate on racism in America was the same man so determined to rescue her husband.

�That�s incredible,� Lewis, 44, exclaimed. �It�s an unfortunate situation. Hopefully, it can resolve itself. The most important thing is peace.�

Gates, 58, an acclaimed scholar on black history and a PBS documentarian, went on the attack against Crowley on Tuesday, demanding he apologize for arresting him for disorderly conduct last Thursday while investigating a reported break-in at his home. Gates, returning from a trip, was seen by a Malden woman trying to force his front door open. Police alleged he initially refused to identify himself.

Though he harbors no �ill feelings toward the professor,� a calm, resolute Crowley said no mea culpa will be forthcoming.

�I just have nothing to apologize for,� he said. �It will never happen.�

Attorney Charles Ogletree, Gates� close friend and fellow Harvard savant, told the Herald, �It�s regrettable and unfortunate that the officer feels that way, and I do hope that some progress will be made in healing this wound.�

Gates, who upon his arrest allegedly bellowed to a gathering crowd on Ware Street, �This is what happens to black men in America!� believes he was targeted by Crowley - whom he called a �rogue� cop - because of his race.

Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, with Gates attorney Walter Prince�s consent, agreed Tuesday to drop the charge of disorderly conduct, calling the incident �an unfortunate set of circumstances.�

Crowley, an 11-year veteran of the force, oversees the evidence room, paid details and records unit. He also coaches youth basketball, baseball and softball.

Joseph McDonald, a former director of public safety at Brandeis, said Crowley was �a real pro,� calling Gates� racial profiling charge �strange.�

�You just do the job as a cop. You don�t look at the color of skin. You�re just trying to help people,� said McDonald, 57.

In a statement expressing its �full and unqualified support� for Crowley, the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association called its brother a �highly respected veteran supervisor with a distinguished record.

�His actions at the scene of this matter were consistent with his training, with the informed policies and practices of the department and with applicable legal standards.�

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1186567&format=text