By Thomas Tracy New York Daily News
He could have been Spider-Man this Halloween, but 12-year-old Paul Ferrara Jr. chose to be his hero – an NYPD police sergeant just like his fallen father.
Proudly sporting his dad’s uniform hat and shirt and a broad smile, the autistic and usually mute child honored his dad, Sgt. Paul Ferrara, who died of Stage 4 lung cancer in August.
Ferrara’s illness traces back to his time at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terror attacks, family members said.
His son’s personal tribute was cheered by cops at the 110 Precinct in Elmhurst, Queens, Ferrara’s last posting.
“Now this is a winner!” Deputy Inspector Ronald Leyson tweeted Friday, along with a picture of the lanky pre-teen.
Kerrie Ferrara, said the plan had not been for her son to go trick-or-treating dressed as a cop.
“It was news to me,” the Shirley, Long Island, resident said.
It was decided earlier in the week that Paul would go out as Spider-Man, she said. But, on Friday morning, Paul changed his mind.
“I said to him, ‘You ready to be Spider-Man,’ and he said, ‘No, I want to be a police sergeant,'” Kerrie Ferrara said. “I said that’s what you want, that’s what you will be.
“He doesn’t talk a lot, so when he does, it means something,” she said.
They had to buy a tie, but everything else they still had in the house – including her husband’s duplicate shield.
“It’s part of the healing process,” she said.
Young Paul had been a cop twice before on Halloween, back when his father was alive, she recalled.
Ferrara, a 22-year veteran of the department, started his career in the 81st Precinct in Brooklyn and transferred to the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst after he was promoted to sergeant in 2006.
His brothers in blue rallied behind him once he became ill and participated in several “10-13” fundraisers – radio code for an officer needing help.
His colleagues in the 113th Precinct even shaved their heads to show support and raise funds for Ferrara, who lost his hair during his many chemotherapy treatments, cops said.
