Friar Mychal Judge 911

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Mychal Fallon Judge, O.F.M., was an American Franciscan friar (Catholic priest) who served as a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. While serving in that capacity he was killed, becoming the first certified fatality of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

On September 11, 2001, upon learning that the World Trade Center had been hit by the first of two jetliners, Judge rushed to the site. He was met by Rudolph Giuliani, the Mayor of New York City, who asked him to pray for the city and its victims. Judge prayed over bodies lying on the streets, then entered the lobby of the World Trade Center North Tower, where an emergency command post had been organized. There he continued offering aid and prayers for the rescuers, the injured, and the dead.

When the neighboring South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., debris went flying through the North Tower lobby, killing many inside, including Judge. At the moment he was struck in the head and killed, Judge was repeatedly praying aloud, according to Judge's biographer and New York Daily News columnist Michael Daly.

Shortly after his death, NYPD Lieutenant William Cosgrove found Judge's body. He and two firefighters, Christian Waugh and Zachary Vause, FDNY EMT, Kevin Allen detailed to the NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM), and one civilian bystander, Former U.S. Army Maj. John P. Maguire, then carried Judge's body out of the North Tower, shortly before the towers collapsed at 10:28 a.m. This event was captured in the documentary film 9/11, shot by Jules and Gedeon Naudet. Shannon Stapleton, a photographer from Reuters, photographed Judge's body being carried out of the rubble by the five men. It became one of the most famous images related to 9/11. Judge's body was placed before the altar of St. Peter's Catholic Church before being taken to the medical examiner.

Judge was designated as "Victim 0001" and thereby recognized as the first official victim of the attacks. Although others had been killed before him, including the crews, passengers, and hijackers of the first three planes, and occupants of the towers and the Pentagon, Judge was the first certified fatality because he was the first body to be recovered and taken to the medical examiner.

Judge's body was formally identified by NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, a long-time friend. The New York Medical Examiner found that Judge died of "blunt force trauma to the head".