Unknown to most New Yorkers, NYPD held its annual Medal Day ceremony on Thursday, June 12 at the department’s Training Bureau campus in College Point, Queens.
The reason for the event’s obscurity is partly geographical as until 2019, the event was held outside NYPD headquarters at 1 Police Plaza. This year’s Medal Day was livestreamed on YouTube.
The emcee of Medal Day was Captain Jack Conway of the Ceremonial Unit, while the National Anthem was sung with a light Spanish accent by Police Officer Kenneth Rivera.
An invocation by the NYPD chief chaplain, the venerable Rabbi Alvin Kass, concluded: “Finally, dear God, we beseech Thee, watch over and protect all of our police officers, and grant to Mayor Adams and Commissioner Tisch continuing success in their unceasing efforts to make New York truly a metropolis where people of every race, religion, color, and creed can pursue their individual destinies, untrammeled, unafraid, and in obedience to Thy will, amen.”
The introduction of the leaders on the dais followed, including myriad chiefs and deputy commissioners—but not Hizzoner, though he has appeared at Medal Day before.
Among this year’s five Medal of Valor awardees was Sergeant Anita Moore.
Today a member of Manhattan Child Abuse Squad, on Oct. 6, 2018, then-Police Officer Anita Moore and her partner, then-PO James Doheny, were assigned to the 30th Precinct Plain Clothes Anti-Crime Team in West Harlem conducting an overnight shift.
In the precise language of New York’s finest:
“At approximately 0545 hours [5:45am], as they neared the completion of their tour, the officers responded to a radio run stating that two males had a firearm. As they arrived at the corner of West 139th Street and Broadway, POs Moore and Doheny observed two males who matched the description.
“While conducting a frisk on the men, PO Moore felt a firearm in the crotch of one suspect’s sweatpants. The suspect began to fight PO Moore, dragging her down the block, separating her physically and visually from her partner.
“Despite being physically outmatched, Officer Moore continued to try to stop the suspect. He then placed PO Moore in a headlock, removed his firearm from his waistband, and pointed it at her head. She was able to wrestle herself free while simultaneously drawing her service pistol and aiming it at the perpetrator.
“PO Moore fired one shot, striking the perpetrator, causing him to release his firearm and fall to the ground. PO Moore physically restrained the perpetrator after he tried to continue to fight her and rendered aid until additional units arrived on the scene.
“A black Jimenez Arms 9-mm semi-automatic pistol was recovered at the scene. The perpetrator was charged with Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd degree. He was convicted at trial and sentenced to five years in prison.”
Winning the 2025 Medal of Valor wasn’t Moore’s first brush with fame. In April 2021, Moore made headlines for the cause of organ donation when she donated a substantial part of her liver to her father, Cortez, whose own liver was damaged from time spent as a soldier in the Vietnam War.
Lying next to her dad before the transplant operation, Moore told the Daily News, “It could be ‘bye’ or ‘see you later.’ I started crying. It was heavy.”
The suspect “placed PO Moore in a headlock, removed his firearm from his waistband, and pointed it at her head. She was able to wrestle herself free while simultaneously drawing her service pistol and aiming it at the perpetrator.