A former Philadelphia police crime scene investigator marked the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11 with reflections on his time at ground zero.
John Taggart was among roughly a dozen Philadelphia police officers sent to New York City after the 2001 attacks.
His role was to document the devastation and support recovery efforts at the site.
His Roxborough home now functions as a personal museum of his experience.
Items on display include the hard hat he wore, a World Trade Center subway sign and hundreds of photographs.
The photos captured the scale of destruction and the responders who worked alongside him.
Taggart said excavation and recovery were the primary missions in the days after the attacks.
Responders searched for evidence and human remains amid the wreckage.
“You could tell almost immediately,” Taggart said. “The first time you turned off, I don’t know what street it was… you were like, ‘There’s no one alive.'”
He described the destruction as unlike anything he had witnessed before.
Taggart said he did not recall seeing glass, telephones or computers in the debris.
He remembered personal belongings scattered across the area.
“There were shoes everywhere,” he said.
Taggart’s team was among the first outside law enforcement personnel to reach ground zero.
“Apparently, we were the first outsiders to actually get to ground zero, and it was only five of us,” he said.
Many first responders he worked with have since died from illnesses linked to exposure at the site.
Taggart expressed concern that another similar tragedy could occur.
“You know it’s going to happen again,” he said. “It’s surprising that it hasn’t.”
Taggart now works as a weekend overnight assignment editor at Action News.
He spent 32 years with the Philadelphia Police Department before retiring.
Taggart said none of the major incidents he witnessed compared to Sept. 11, 2001.
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