What This Story Is About
Retired NYPD officer Scott Faver, who now lives in Tennessee, recalls responding to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and losing colleagues Walter Weaver and Jerome Dominguez that day.
Why It Matters
Faver’s account reflects the ongoing toll of 9/11 on first responders, including the loss of colleagues, survivor’s guilt, and health effects like cancer that persist 25 years later.
For Context
Faver spent 23 years on patrol with the NYPD before relocating to Tennessee, and for two months after the attacks, he was assigned to escort recovered first responders to the morgue.
Catch Up
Faver was in the Bronx on September 11, 2001, when he learned of the attacks and rushed to the World Trade Center, arriving about the same time the second plane hit the tower.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Former New York Police Department officer Scott Faver was on patrol in the Big Apple for 23 years; now he calls Tennessee home.
Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001, attacks, he still remembers the silence.
“When the first tower fell, honestly, it was just… almost a silence of seeing the building implode,” Faver said.
Faver was working in the Bronx and assigned to Highway Patrol on September 11, 2001.
He was talking with colleagues Walter Weaver and Jerome Dominguez when the call came in. The three rushed from the Bronx to the World Trade Center in their own vehicles, with Faver going one way and his colleagues going the other.
He arrived at the World Trade Center moments before the second plane hit the South Tower.
He recalls seeing rows of firemen going into the building as people ran away from the rubble to escape the chaos: “It really was a sight that you don’t want to ever see again.”
Helping people escape the chaos
Faver helped evacuate people from the area and get them to safety and says what he saw that day, and what came after, has stayed with him.
“You almost felt like they [first responders] were walking into their impending doom, to try to save lives and ultimately sacrifice their own to do that,” said Faver.
Among the hundreds of first responders who sacrificed their lives that day were Weaver and Dominguez, the men Faver had been with earlier that morning.
Faver said Weaver and Dominguez were among the many fallen officers he knew, which came with weight on his shoulders as he experienced survivor’s guilt.
“Sometimes you feel survivor’s guilt, like, why did I survive,” Faver said. “But you just keep their memories alive.”
Escorting the fallen
Faver’s work did not end when the towers fell. For the next two months, he was assigned to escort first responders recovered from Ground Zero.
He would ride into the area and give first responders a dignified escort to the morgue. There they would be identified and notifications sent to their families.
Faver said the effects of that day are still being felt 25 years later.
“I’ve had a few friends who passed away from cancers,” Faver said. “I had skin cancer. Thankfully, it seems to be in remission.”
He hopes to see school continue to educate students on the day so new generations never forget.
Faver said, “Remember the first responders that sacrificed their lives. Remember the people in the building that lost their lives.”
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