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Police Detective Charles Wassil died Wednesday, according to the Peekskill Police Department.
“Charlie was a dear friend to many members of the Peekskill Police Department past and present, and to countless others in the law enforcement community and in the Peekskill community,” said Peekskill Police Chief Eric Johansen. “He loved being a police officer and he helped many people through the darkest and most trying events of their lives. Detective Charles Wassil was a true guardian of the people." Wassil served in Peekskill for 18 years and before that, the NYPD for five years. Prior to his career in law enforcement, Wassil served as a member of the United States Marine Corps. Wassil retired from the Peekskill Police Department in August 2008 after receiving a line of duty retirement for a medical condition that he contracted while serving at Ground Zero following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Wassil was diagnosed with neurosarcoidosis, which causes severely inflamed cells in his spine -- leaving him paralyzed. Wassil’s illness progressed rapidly, causing him to be confined to a wheelchair and to become a resident of a nursing home for most of the last four years.
Treatment for Wassil’s illness was not covered by the Zadroga Act of 2010, leaving him to rely on fundraisers and donations from the community to help fund his treatments. Wassil became an advocate for changing the Zadroga Act to help fellow Ground Zero first responders.
Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, Wassil returned to the Ground Zero site with his old NYPD partner Detective Richard J. Miller where they were honored by the Sept. 11 Museum by flying a flag that had flown at Ground Zero after the attack and then in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa with U.S. troops. Immediately afterwards the flag was presented to the museum.
"I was the last human being to ever touch that flag," Wassil said.
A wake will be held for Wassil at the Joseph F. Nardone Funeral Home at 414 Washington St. in Peekskill on Friday, May 3 from 2 to 4 p.m., and from 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral service will be held at the Saint Columbanus Church at 124 Oregon Road in Cortlandt Manor on Saturday, May 4 at 10 a.m. Wassil will be buried at the Assumption Cemetery immediately following the funeral church service.
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