‘The World Changed’: Suffolk County Sheriff's Office 9/11 Stories

It was a beautiful Tuesday morning. Then the world changed.

Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office employees are recounting the horror, heroism and unity they witnessed firsthand in a new documentary released Thursday.

The nearly 20-minute video features Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr. and employees who responded to the World Trade Center while serving with the Sheriff’s Office, NYPD, New York City Department of Correction and volunteer fire departments.

“Absolutely beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky,” one former NYPD officer remembered.

Within hours, that blue sky was consumed by smoke, ash and unimaginable destruction.

“There were bodies on the ground. There were people actively jumping. It was total chaos if you could imagine,” one responder recalled. “There were life-threatening debris raining down from very high up.”

Another remembered hearing what responders initially believed was another aircraft approaching.

“We hear what we thought was another plane, but it was actually the first tower coming down,” he said. “We didn't know what was going on. Just the rumbling, the sound, and the black smoke.”

At Ground Zero, the devastation seemed unreal.

“It felt like a post-apocalyptic nightmare just walking down there,” one responder said.

“I'll never forget the smell,” another recalled.

One haunting image remains 25 years later: a half-eaten breakfast left behind inside a damaged building.

“It's a beautiful Tuesday and somebody was there just having a bagel and then the world changed,” the responder said.

But they also remember what emerged from the ashes.

“On September 12th, everybody was an American,” one participant recalled.

Toulon said the stories must survive long after the eyewitnesses are gone.

“We will never forget the 2,977 lives lost on that tragic day,” Toulon said, “and we have a responsibility to honor their memory by keeping their stories alive.”

The documentary is available through the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office’s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram pages.