Flag Ceremony for Tower

Tower and First Responder Rob Thornton will be taken off life support, Sunday, Feb. 27., following a flag-raising ceremony scheduled for 2 p.m. outside of Hackensack Hospital. 

Thornton was clearing an accident scene for Nick’s Towing Service on Rt. 3 in Rutherford, N.J. on Feb. 13 when a three-vehicle crash occurred behind the police closure, according Rutherford police chief, John Russo. “One vehicle hit another, spinning it out,” the chief said. 

The first vehicle then barreled "straight down the shoulder," nearly hitting several officers, as well as occupants from the first crash and marked police units, he said. It then struck the car that Thornton was working on. 

Officers freed him from under the vehicle and rendered aid before Thornton was taken to Hackensack Hospital, where he remained in the Intensive Care Unit. 

A member of multiple "families," Thornton is well-known among North Jersey police, firefighters and EMS workers. 

Family members of Robert Thornton, 31, said there will be no limit on the number of attendees during the ceremony outside the front of Hackensack University Medical Center.  

Anyone who wants to say something in his honor will be welcome, they said.  Source