Rochester Police Officer Dennison “Denny” Wright, who was blinded in the line of duty in 2019, was presented with the Governor’s Police Officer of the Year Award in a ceremony at the Rochester Police Department on Wednesday.
Wright was supposed to have received the recognition in 2020, but the proceedings were delayed due to the pandemic and a change in governors.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who was on hand with other dignitaries for the ceremony, said he was “beyond grateful and eternally indebted” for Wright’s service.
“He answered the call of putting his own life in danger in order to protect others,” Delgado said. “He put his life ahead, he sacrificed it, offered it up, for the safety of others. We ask our officers to do this every single day.”
The Governor’s Officer of the Year Award, also known as the state Division of Criminal Justice Services Medal of Valor, is bestowed annually to an officer, or officers, who displays “exceptional valor and courage in the face of grave danger.”
Wright is the first Rochester police officer to receive the recognition since it was established in 1984.
Wright was a 23-year veteran of the Rochester police force when he was repeatedly stabbed in the face and elsewhere on his body while responding to what was thought to have been a routine domestic disturbance on Peck Street on Oct. 4, 2019.
His attacker, Keith Williams, was hiding under a bed when Wright arrived, and unleashed on Wright when the officer attempted to stop Williams from fleeing.
Williams was convicted last year on multiple felony charges, including attempted second-degree murder, and was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
It was widely reported at the time of the incident that Wright had fired a shot during the altercation.
In his remarks during the ceremony, Police Chief David Smith elaborated on the circumstances surrounding the gunshot, saying that Wright discharged the gun when he had already been injured to keep a loaded weapon from potentially falling into his attacker’s hands.
“Denny didn’t want to surrender a loaded weapon to the suspect,” Smith said. “Thinking of others and not himself, Denny ejected the magazine from the gun and cleared that gun so that if the suspect got a hold of it, he couldn’t use it against anyone else.
“Which again, just shows the level of dedication, commitment and giving of himself to others because despite what was going on, despite being underneath that suspect and being repeatedly stabbed, Denny was thinking of who else was in the house and who else was going to be coming, and he put them first.”
The attack left Wright completely blind, with no perception of light.
Addressing the audience after receiving his award, Wright, 57, said that despite living in darkness, his world was illuminated with the love he feels from his family, friends, and colleagues. He singled out his wife, Sonia, and the rest of his family, as people who might also be deserving of an award.
“I believe that every officer I work with, every officer I know, maybe every officer in this state deserves the medal I have around my neck now,” Wright said. “We go to work every day and we just want to come home at night.
“I did make it home. It took a few days and a couple stops at different hospitals, but I did get home and I am trying to adjust or to learn how to function with what I am presented with now, which is although it's darkness, I have no light perception, my world is not dark. My world is lit up.”
