Duty Death: Cpl. Christopher Milito - [Delaware River Port Authority]
Philadelphia Inquirer
DELAWARE RIVER, N.J. — Delaware River Port Authority Cpl. Christopher Milito routinely changed tires for stranded motorists and changed the lives of people considering suicide on area bridges.
“We don’t have residents in our town. People may use our facilities just once on a trip from California or England, or they may use our facilities three times a day,” DRPA Chief Dave McClintock said. “He exemplified what we do. He was an ambassador.”
About 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Milito, 40, became the first DRPA officer killed in the line of duty on a bridge, when he was struck by a passing motorist as he ran across five lanes of traffic to do what he did best - help a fellow officer.
The 16-year DRPA veteran was going to assist at an accident investigation on the eastbound side of the Walt Whitman Bridge, not far past the toll booths, when an accident claimed his life, police said.
He was transported by fellow officers to Cooper Hospital in Camden, where he was pronounced dead at 2:06 a.m.
The driver of the vehicle that hit him was taken into custody by Philadelphia police, but he was freed without charges, pending toxicology test results, police said.
The eastbound lanes of the Walt Whitman were closed for five hours following the accident and the bridge was shut for 45 minutes the following night about midnight so investigators could reconstruct the accident, said Ed Kasuba, DRPA spokesman.
Milito, of Upper Providence Township, Delaware County, was single with no children. He loved homemade wine, cooking, his cat and continuing education.
In just one week, he was to start working a day shift so he could complete the three classes he needed to earn his master’s degree in criminal justice at West Chester University, McClintock said.
“He was a very, very smart man and very well-educated,” McClintock said. “He had an overall commitment to his position and to be the very best he could be.”
He was 24 when he joined the force as a quiet young man with the utmost respect for his peers and superiors, McClintock said. Current and former DRPA officers gathered over the weekend to remember Milito.
“He was respected by his subordinates as well as his superiors,” McClintock said. “What I’ve learned is he was loved by the members of this department. He was beyond admired.”
A viewing will be Wednesday in Broomall, Delaware County. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul, 18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The last DRPA officer to be killed in the line of duty was hit by a train in 1974.
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