As the city mourns NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, who passed away this week, NY1 caught up with a boxing great who remembers the police officer as a real champ. NY1 Criminal Justice reporter Dean Meminger tells us about that relationship.
"Steven meant the world, man," Iran Barkley said.
And that's coming from a former world champion boxer.
Iran Barkley says he had a personal connection to beloved Detective Steven McDonald and is heartbroken by his friend's death Tuesday.
For many years, the pair would speak to young children together at the Villa Maria Academy in the Bronx.
"I am going to miss him just doing that, because he's a good guy," Barkley said about the visits. "And, I mean, you couldn't ask for a better partner."
McDonald, shot by a teenager and left paralyzed from the neck down 30 years ago, often visited schools to talk to kids about the importance of staying out of trouble.
Barkley says he learned a lot from his time with McDonald and the kids they spoke with.
"They received him well. They used to jump around him and sit in his lap and watch him talk," Barkley said. "He would ride them on the wheelchair with him."
Barkley, who won world championships in the middle and lightweight divisions in the 1980s and 90s, says life wasn't always easy after his fortune and fame disappeared.
But being around Detective McDonald was always uplifting, and it was a reminder of what he did have.
"For everything that he'd been through, you can't complain," Barkley said. "When I used to get so mad and angry at myself, you know, I would look at him and he would bring joy to me."
Many others around the city and world felt the same way about Detective Steven McDonald.