A NYPD detective who was paralyzed on the job during a 1986 Central Park shooting was hospitalized on Friday after suffering a serious heart attack.
Steven McDonald, 59, went into cardiac arrest on Friday afternoon at his home in Malverne, Long Island, Pix11 reports. McDonald was initially taken to Franklin General Hospital, located near his home, before being transferred to North Shore University Hospital, where he is in stable condition, the Post reports.
Sources told Pix11 that the previous night, McDonald had spoken to a gathering of Catholic men in Garden City and had "seemed fine."
In 1986, McDonald was investigating a robbery in Central Park when he was shot three times by a 15-year-old named Shavod James. The following year, McDonald released a statement during his son's baptism in which he said he forgave James.
"On some days, when I am not feeling very well, I can get angry. But I have realized that anger is a wasted emotion and that I have to remember why I became a police officer," McDonald said in 1987. "I'm sometimes angry at the teenage boy who shot me. But more often I feel sorry for him. I only hope he can turn his life into helping and not hurting people. I forgive him and hope that he can find peace and purpose in his life."
Jones served eight years in prison and died just three days after his release in a motorcycle accident.
In an interview with NY1 on Friday, McDonald's son, Conor, asked the city to pray for his dad. Conor McDonald joined the NYPD in 2010 and was promoted to sergeant last September.
