Rich got to the point. He told the priest he wanted to compose a prayer. “I explained that usually I had no trouble making my own prayers, but this time I needed some help.” The priest recalled the front-page news reports about the shooting and seemed eager to do what he could. Rich said that first he wanted to thank God for letting him live. Then he asked for a prayer for his fellow officers who were still in the hospital recovering from their wounds. Finally he said he needed a prayer for Arthur Alalouf, the man he killed. He wanted to ask God to let his soul rest in peace. The priest asked Rich to kneel. He stood above him and put one hand on his bowed head. He thanked God for keeping Rich safe. He prayed for the quick and complete recovery for the brave police officers who were wounded and still in the hospital. Finally he prayed to the Holy Father to let Arthur Alalouf’s soul rest in peace. When Rich stood up, he felt calmer. His pulse had slowed, and his breathing was deeper and more steady. He shut his eyes. It was the first time since Saturday that Arthur Alalouf was not looking back at him.
Rich Miller, one of the NYPD’s top snipers, has risked his life many times during his career, but never more so than when he ended what is still one of the worst gun battles in New York City history. At great risk to his own life, he charged a gunman who had taken cover in a stairwell of a home in Brooklyn. By the time Rich got his shot, the man, who had failed the psychological exam to become a New York City police officer, had severely wounded five cops. Before he began his shooting rampage, he told his family that his goal was to kill as many police officers as he could before they killed him. Rich and his fellow officers still have a difficult time trying to process the horrific event. Rich even seeks help from his priest hoping to get some comfort from the dark thoughts that keep him awake. Like all cops, he suffers when having to take a life, no matter how justified or warranted that action may be.
Rich crawls out on ledges to rescue jumpers, pulls people from car wrecks and construction site disasters, delivers babies, helps homeless people find shelter, and talks violent men using innocent hostages as shields into surrendering. Over the course of his twenty-three-year career, Rich Miller has executed close to three thousand high risk warrants, busting through doors and putting people under arrest for the most serious crimes imaginable, mostly without ever firing a shot. At the Bronx River, Rich almost drowns in a futile and heart breaking attempt to save a young boy who has fallen off of a raft earlier in the day. His eyes still fill with tears when he tells the story five years later.
Rich has suffered several injuries of the course of his career. He fractured his skull when a hydraulic tool collapsed while he was rescuing an eight-year-old boy trapped in an elevator, and an emotionally disturbed woman he was trying to help sliced through his hand with a saw.
Rich and his partner, Richie Hartigan, raised the first American flag at Ground Zero just twenty-four hours after the Twin Towers collapsed. The people who have seen the video say it’s as moving as the American flag going up at Iwo Jima.
“Everyone there helped get that flag up,” Rich said, “police officers, firefighters, construction workers, iron workers and medical personnel. Richie Hartigan and I were the ones up on the ladder, but they were all right behind us. After our flag went up, each time we came above ground, more flags were flying. The day after that there were hundreds of flags. If our flag inspired other flags to go up and those flags inspired a nation, I’m proud to have been a part of that. We’d taken a heavy hit, but there was something about seeing all those American flags that made me confident we would rebuild and we would survive.”
With the exception of one interview with the newspaper Newsday, Rich Miller has rebuffed countless requests for interviews and movie deals. He does admit when Robin Moore, author of many best-selling books including, The Green Berets and The French Connection, took him out to dinner and told him he wanted to write a book about his life, he was a little overwhelmed. Despite being an admirer of Moore’s work and enormously flattered to get the offer, Miller turned it down. “I just was never interested in that kind of attention,” he said