MANCHESTER, NH – The diaper. The wedding ring. The child wrapped in a police captain’s jacket. The expression of compassion and concern on a police chief’s face as he clutches a child close in his arms– heart to heart – seconds after the boy was pulled from a dangerous situation.
The details captured in a photograph at the scene of a November drug raid are what moved artist Jack Evjy, of Bedford, to recreate the image on canvas, and present it to Chief Nick Willard Wednesday as a gift, and a thank you.
He calls it “True Compassion,” words Evjy affixed to the top of the painting in gold letters.
“I tried to capture the genuine sadness in your eyes,” said Evjy to Willard, describing the most difficult part of getting the painting just right.
Before he took up painting 30 years ago at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, Evjy was a medical oncologist. His wife Sheila worked for yeas as a nursing supervisor for Elliot Hospital – they met as fellow healers, with a shared compassion for those who suffer.
“As my brother says, ‘Life is the making of memories,’ and so my wife Sheila and I are here to thank you for being an inspiration to us, and to so many in our community,” Evjy said, as he addressed Willard and other top Manchester Police brass.
“We’ve spent our lives dealing with issues, mostly of cancer patients and other kinds of patients. But this drug addiction problem is horrendous. It’s impacted our family, it’s impacted our community, and I just read in the New York Times yesterday that the major cause of death in this country for people under the age of 50 is drug overdoses. I can’t believe this. I spent my whole life with cancer patients, and I thought that was bad, but this is worse, and it impacts everyone – including children,” Evjy said.
In November of 2016 a picture taken by photojournalist Jeffrey Hastings at the scene of a drug raid on Orange Street captured national attention, and inspired Evjy to immortalize the moment.
“We took one look at that picture and to us, it just spoke so much about your humanity – you, as a person, and the police department who are here to bring safety and security to this community,” Evjy said. “The picture – and the emotion you expressed – spoke more clearly to the personal impact of the carnage, especially to children, than any we’ve seen.”
Willard accepted the portrait on behalf of the entire team assigned to the drug raid that morning. He retold the story for the Evjys of how he came to be holding the child – he just happened to be in the right place at a difficult time.
“The real bravery, and the real humanity, is the SWAT operator who goes in and he’s ready for essentially a confrontation – there were guns in there, and some real bad characters in that house. The reason I was there is because I was so concerned after hearing a briefing from Captain Sanclemente, who’s the commander of our SWAT team, about the situation. So, I was there because of the dynamic approach our SWAT team was going to have to take,” Willard said.
He went on to explain the complexity of this particular raid, and how as police offices pulled up to the scene, “guns went flying out the window through which that child was taken,” said Willard.
“You have the young officer wearing his helmet and all the other gear he has to protect himself, and then he comes across a child. His first responsibility now becomes protecting that child, at his own potential danger because he has to retreat from that apartment. Think of the emotion of that. He’s no longer a team member doing that dynamic raid, and he’s desperately looking for someone to hand that child to so he can get back in there and protect his brother officers. Really, the reason he handed the child to me is because I was standing there, and I didn’t have anything else to do,” Willard said, evoking some laughter from his colleagues.
“Truly, though, this picture really represents all of us. To me, it was really the composure of that SWAT officer coming out of there with the child. He had to go from ready for a gun battle, to rescuing a child, to how do I get back in there as fast as I can so I can be that team member I’ve been trained to be,” Willard said. “There are a lot of people in this room who were there that day, who did far more heroic things than I did. I think it’s just important for me to say that to you – but also, that this picture represents all of us, and I thank you for it.”
