Nearly a decade after his death, paralyzed NYPD hero Steven McDonald — who forgave the teenage gunman who put him in a wheelchair — is the subject of a new documentary that traces his extraordinary journey from Central Park shooting victim to international symbol of forgiveness and peace.
“Saint of the City” traces McDonald’s rehabilitation in Denver, his pilgrimage to Lourdes, France — where he initially prayed for a cure — and his trip to Northern Ireland, where he consoled victims of the 1998 Omagh car bombing that killed 29 people and later participated in peace talks.
The 96-minute film features interviews with the brother of the 15-year-old who shot McDonald and the late officer’s widow and son, who is now an NYPD captain.
McDonald was undercover and questioning Shavod Jones in connection with a rash of bicycle thefts in the park when the teen pulled out a gun and shot him three times, hitting his spine and paralyzing him from the neck down, leaving him dependent on a ventilator.
The following year, McDonald forgave the teenager in a letter read by his wife.
Jones went to prison for nearly nine years for attempted murder before he was released in 1995. He died three days later in a crash while riding on the backseat of a friend’s motorcycle in East Harlem.
McDonald died on Jan. 10, 2017, at the age of 59 after a heart attack.
Former Emmy Award-winning reporter Mary Murphy and retired Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Erin Mulvey wrote, directed and produced the film, which questions why the slain cop isn’t up for sainthood.
Formal canonization in the Catholic Church typically requires two medical miracles.
But Murphy pointed out that one of the qualities that is supposed to be present “is heroic virtue, and I don’t think I know anyone else that I’ve met in my life that exemplifies that more than Steven McDonald.
“It’s almost 10 years since Steven’s death, and we don’t hear about any cause for sainthood,” Murphy told The Post. “We’re questioning that. And, you know, we wanted to look into what made him so holy, and what made him so special.”
The film, “isn’t just about what happened” to McDonald, Mulvey added.
“It’s about what he chose to do with it, which is a message that resonates with us all,” said Mulvey, who was touched by McDonald’s story because of her own husband’s death as a result of 9/11 illness.
Watching the movie brought the cop’s widow Patricia McDonald to tears even though she lived through her husband’s ordeal.
“I was praying that he would get up out of that chair, but just watching from the beginning til the end was just, it made me cry, you know, just seeing how young we were, and everything that we went through,” Patricia McDonald told The Post, while weeping.
“But also with that said, all the people that came into our lives that helped us and inspired us and were there with us … and then when Steven passed, just seeing how the city came to say goodbye.”
At his funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the police officer’s son, Conor McDonald, a member of the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information’s office, called his father “our saint.”
“My dad always lived a faithful life in the church and he exemplified that after he got shot,” he said.
“So, in regards to sainthood, I just believe in the grace of God,” his son said.
“If people are inspired to create a cause, my dad’s name will happen,” Conor McDonald said. “If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But I think my mother knows, and I know, and our family and friends know, that my dad lived the life of a saint.”
The movie, which was funded in part through the New York City Police Foundation and the Detectives Endowment Association, has not been slated for a wide release. There will be an invitation-only screening in July.