Friday, October 2, 2026
The New York City Police Department renamed its academy the Detective Steven D. McDonald Police Academy at a ceremony on July 16, honoring the late detective who spent his final years in Malverne and whose message of forgiveness became known around the world.
McDonald, who grew up in Rockville Centre before later settling in Malverne, remained an active member of the NYPD for more than three decades after a shooting in Central Park left him paralyzed from the neck down. Although he relied on a ventilator to breathe, he continued mentoring recruits, supporting wounded officers and speaking about forgiveness, peace and nonviolence until his death in 2017, at age 59.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, members of the McDonald family, other elected officials and hundreds of NYPD recruits gathered for the dedication ceremony at the academy, in College Point, Queens, which first opened in 2014.
Speakers described McDonald as the embodiment of the ideals the department hopes officers will carry throughout their careers.
“Stephen McDonald gave the city more than most people could give in a lifetime,” Tisch said, “and after giving nearly everything in the line of duty, he spent more than three decades finding new ways to serve.”
Tisch also announced a permanent exhibit in the academy that will preserve items from McDonald’s career, including his wheelchair and ventilator, replicas of his officer’s and detective’s shields, photos documenting his service, and the powder-blue uniform shirt he wore in the early years of his career. The exhibit is intended to ensure that future generations of officers understand both McDonald’s sacrifice and his continued commitment to policing.
Tisch announced the renaming in her State of the NYPD address in February, describing McDonald as “the embodiment of who we want our officers to be.”
Last week’s ceremony marked 42 years since McDonald entered the Police Academy as a recruit in 1984, and came just days after the 40th anniversary of the July 12, 1986, shooting that forever changed his life.
Born in Queens Village in 1957, McDonald moved with his family to Rockville Centre as a child. One of eight children, he was a third-generation NYPD officer whose grandfather died in the line of duty. He served for four years as a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman before joining the Police Department in 1984. He and his wife, Patti Ann, married in 1985, and less than a year later, while investigating a bicycle theft in Central Park, he was shot three times by a 15-year-old.
Instead of retreating from public life, McDonald dedicated the next three decades to sharing a message of reconciliation. He publicly forgave the teenager who shot him and spoke in schools, churches, community organizations and conflict zones around the world, encouraging forgiveness and nonviolent solutions to conflict.
Mamdani described McDonald as an officer whose response to unimaginable tragedy reshaped how New Yorkers view policing. “He was a man of deep faith, and he had the wisdom to know that living consumed by rage would all but guarantee the death he had just narrowly escaped,” Mamdani said. “I can think of no better name to adorn our police academy than his.”
McDonald’s son, NYPD Capt. Conor McDonald, reflected on his father’s lifelong dedication to the department, and said his greatest mission became honoring officers who never made it home from their tours of duty.
“My father was my hero,” Conor told the Herald. “Growing up watching him travel New York City, the world, preaching about nonviolence, forgiveness, and that love transcends all, he was an incredible human being, and he’s the definition of what police officers around the world should be.”
Patti Ann McDonald, a former mayor of Malverne, said the honor reflects her husband’s lifelong commitment to caring for others.
“It’s not just about Steven, it’s about all the men and women who gave their lives to the city of New York,” she told the Herald. “To me it’s an example of what Stephen meant to all the people that were here today, and it warms my heart that they were here.”
Following his death in January 2017, numerous tributes were established in McDonald’s honor, including the naming of a portion of the Southern State Parkway the Detective Steven McDonald Memorial Highway, and the Steven McDonald Garden of Forgiveness in Malverne’s Westwood Park.
