GREENWICH VILLAGE — Within seconds of getting the call, Sgt. Maggie Clamp and Officer James Quirk pulled up to the Village smokeshop where two law enforcement officers had been shot.
It was 1 p.m. on July 28, and Clamp and Quirk were the first officers on the scene where an NYPD detective and a U.S. Marshal had been wounded in a West Fourth Street shootout with a fugitive they were trying to arrest.
"Due to the quick action, decisiveness and leadership of Sergeant Clamp, and the outstanding driving skills of P.O. Quirk under the most stressful circumstances," both of those wounded officers received medical treatment almost "instantaneously" and recovered from their injuries, said Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Maria Diaz.
Diaz presented Clamp and Quirk with the 6th Precinct's Officer of the Year award at a luncheon on Thursday, surrounded by police from across Lower Manhattan.
Clamp has been with the NYPD for almost nine years, and spent the last two years as a sergeant at the 6th Precinct. Quirk has been on the force for three years, and at the 6th Precinct for two.
On the day of the shooting last summer, Clamp and Quirk found U.S. Marshal Patrick Lin and Det. Mario Muniz bleeding outside Smoking Culture at 177 West 4th St.
The officers, along with U.S. Marshal Ryan Westfield, were at the smokshop to arrest Charles Mozdir, a fugitive. But Mozdir opened fire, and a gunfight broke out. Mozdir was killed, and Muniz was shot twice in the stomach below his bulletproof vest.
When Clamp saw Muniz bleeding in front of the shop, she pulled him and Lin into the backseat of her cruiser, and she and Quirk rushed the injured officers to Bellevue Hospital.
Diaz credited their speed with the officers' quick recovery: the marshals were released from the hospital the next day, and Muniz followed the day after that.
After the award ceremony, James O'Neill, recently appointed the NYPD's new Chief of Department, praised Clamp and Quirk.
"Great work," he told Clamp and Quirk, shaking their hands. "Really impressive, great work."
