NEW YORK — The names of three New York City correction captains who died from illnesses linked to their work after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have been added to the department’s memorial on Rikers Island.
Capts. Jacqueline Payden, Raul Gonzalez and Thomas Weadock were honored during the New York City Department of Correction’s annual remembrance ceremony on Sept. 4. Their names joined those of uniformed and civilian staff lost to 9/11-related illnesses already inscribed on the memorial.
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Their families received plaques and folded American flags in recognition of their service, according to the New York Post. A wreath was also placed at the memorial during the ceremony, held across from the Samuel L. Perry Center as the department marked 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks and remembered the correction personnel who served during the response and recovery.
The department said it has lost 45 uniformed and civilian members to 9/11-related illnesses, many of them cancers caused by exposure to toxic dust and debris at Ground Zero.
“I miss my daughter so much. She was my life,” Payden’s mother, Daisy Payden, told the Post.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and DOC Commissioner Stanley Richards presided over the ceremony, which honored the correction officers and other staff members who responded on Sept. 11, 2001, and continued working through the rescue, relief and recovery operations that followed.
Correction officers helped evacuate children from schools, while members of the department’s Telecommunications Unit established a hard-line connection that allowed FDNY personnel to communicate, Mamdani noted during the ceremony. DOC personnel also joined the maritime evacuation of people stranded in Lower Manhattan.
Others searched for survivors at Ground Zero, delivered generators to provide power and light, transported supplies and supported partner agencies in the days and months after the attacks.
“Their stories are an essential part of the history of September 11,” Richards said. “The heroism shown that day by rescue workers, drivers and harbor masters; K-9 handlers and machine operators; technicians and telecommunications experts — that heroism did not end when the sun set on September 11. It dawned again on September 12 and September 13 and every morning that followed.”
Retired Warden Richard Palmer, who helped lead the department’s response after the attacks, presented a plaque from One Voice United honoring “New York’s Boldest” for their work at Ground Zero. The plaque had been presented to him and retired Capt. Phil Rizzo after they shared their story at the 2026 One Voice United conference and would be given to the chief of department as a tribute to the agency’s uniformed 9/11 responders.
Retired Chief of Department Robert N. Davoren, who led the agency’s response during the attacks and the recovery effort, and retired Warden John Scudero, who commanded the Special Operations Division, shared reflections during the ceremony. The department also recognized its Chaplaincy Unit for providing prayer, comfort and guidance after the attacks.
DOC said the role its employees played in the city’s 9/11 response remains absent from much of the historical record. The department has continued working to document that service and recognize the members who later died from related illnesses.
