May God bless them. Even with a bullet in his heart, he called his family. This young man from Savana-la-mar was a gift to his family and to NYC.

www.nydailynews.com/front...6503c.html

Dying cop called his home

Hero thought of wife and children during rush to hospital


BY JESS WISLOSKI
and DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS WRITERS


Even with a bullet in his heart, Officer Dillon Stewart somehow found the strength to make a final call home on his cell phone, it was revealed yesterday.
The mortally wounded cop's mind turned to his beloved wife and two young daughters as rescuers rushed him to the hospital - after he led the chase for a gunman who opened fire on him on a Flatbush street.

"That was all he thought about - his family," said Lt. Emmanuel Gonzalez, who spoke of the call.

His emotional remembrance of a New York hero came as hundreds of cops joined mourners lined up to pay their respects to Stewart at his wake.

Stewart's widow, Leslyn, 29, held their baby daughter, Samantha, and comforted his weeping mother, Winfred Flemming, 61, in the front pew at the New Life Tabernacle Church in East Flatbush

His 6-year-old daughter, Alexis, dressed in a black and purple velvet dress, patted her grandma's knee.

Cop after cop paused by his open casket to say a silent prayer or salute Stewart, dressed in a formal blue uniform. "He was a great cop and he had a great gut," said Officer Scott Chin. "This was a hard loss, not just for the 70th [Precinct] but for the city in general."

Thousands are expected at Stewart's funeral, to be held today at 9:30 a.m. at the New Life Tabernacle on Avenue D near Utica Ave. in Brooklyn.

At yesterday's wake, the fallen hero lay in a steel-gray coffin lined with white cloth embroidered with an American flag. Next to it stood a bouquet of flowers in the shape of a detective's badge.

Images from Stewart's life flashed on a nearby television monitor - baby pictures, a childhood soccer game, shots from his wedding and poignant photos of him holding his first child.

Stewart, 35, was shot on Nov. 28 after he chased a driver who had run a red light on Church Ave. Cops say one bullet fired by alleged suspect Allen Cameron, 27, just missed Stewart's bulletproof vest and hit his heart.

Two by two, officers who worked the late shift with Stewart lined up stiffly in the frigid cold to await their turn to say goodbye to a friend and colleague.

The slaying also touched mourners Charmaine Shirley, 32, and Beverley Stevenson, 50, who couldn't shake the memory of the always-joking cop who stopped by their West Indian restaurant for pork and fried plantains.

"He was a very good person," Stevenson said. "He was sweet."

Originally published on December 6, 2005