The video, in which Detective Jennifer Ciaccia interviews Officer Anthony Espada, Officer Barbara Johnson and Officer Michael Tracy, is embedded below.
Their stories recount the initial dispatch that sent them toward Seymour Avenue. Upon arrival, the large crowd forming in the street and on sidewalks portended major discoveries. Espada describes his trip into the home, where he first encountered Michelle Knight.
“As we were going up the steps, it was so quiet – like peaceful,” Espada says. Knight burst out of a second-floor bedroom and embraced the officer. Within a few seconds, he adds, a second girl came out of the bedroom.
“My name is Georgina DeJesus,” he recalls the woman telling him.
“It took everything to hold myself together,” Espada says amid tears.
This article appears in May 15-21, 2013.
It still blows my mind to think about this whole ordeal and everything that happened…..just crazy…