OFFICER DIES FROM HEAD INJURY; DAVID C. MORRIS WAS 26 YEARS OLD

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 19, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A06

A Park Ridge police officer who was critically injured when he fell in the parking lot of his apartment building and was later placed on life support died Saturday, a Pascack Valley Hospital spokeswoman said.

Patrolman David C. Morris was 26 years old.

Park Ridge Police Chief Robert Minugh called it a “terrible tragedy.”

Morris, who had been out with friends, arrived at his Hawthorne Avenue apartment about 1 a.m., the chief said. Two friends had lost sight of him for a few minutes, and when they next saw him he was lying on the ground with a head injury.

He was taken by ambulance to Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood and placed on life support after he was diagnosed as having suffered brain damage from a blood clot, the chief said. He was removed from life support at 5:50 a.m. Saturday after his family was consulted.

“He was an excellent officer, a very fine young man,” Minugh said.

At the Teaneck Police Department, where Morris began his career in January 1987, news that he had been injured and was not expected to live hit hard Friday. Although he resigned from the department in September 1988 to take the Park Ridge job, his mother lives in Teaneck and he had many friends on the force.

“Obviously, it was a shock to hear of the accident,” Teaneck Capt. Gary S. Fiedler said. “I saw him just the other day; he stopped by here Wednesday.”

Chief Donald Giannone said Morris was “a personable guy who performed his functions in a professional manner.” Although his tenure was short, he said, he left in good standing.

Obituary. A-20

ID: 17366369 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)