Murder of Beloved Detroit Firefighter Stuns Community

Outside a fire station in southwest Detroit, dozens of residents gathered alongside current and retired firefighters on Tuesday night.

They were commemorating life of a veteran firefighter, David Madrigal, who was found dead inside his home in what Detroit Police are calling a homicide.

“We still haven’t been able to accept what we’ve been told,” said Lt. James Edwards with the Detroit Fire Department. “We called him Super Dave for a reason.”

A relative found Madrigal's body at 7:45 p.m. Monday at his home on the 7600 block of Vaughn on Detroit's west side, said Detroit Police Sgt. Cassandra Lewis. The cause of his death was blunt force trauma to the head -- he had not been shot as was previously reported, said Lloyd Jackson, spokesman for the county medical examiner.

Madrigal was dead for at least a day by the time police arrived. They found some personal items missing, including his black 2015 Ford Explorer, though they declined to say what the other items were.

No arrests have been made yet. Anyone with information is asked to call the Detroit Police Department's homicide division at 313-596-2260.

Retired firefighter Gerald Simmons said he was numb when he heard the news. He had fond memories of Madrigal from 21 years ago, when Simmons still a rookie. They were battling a fire in southwest Detroit when Simmons found himself lightly burned on his face, and Madrigal told him: “You got a little extra crispy, huh?”

Simmons told the crowd: “I was thinking, ‘I got burned, and you’re making jokes?’” But he laughed then, and the memory stuck.

Simmons continued: “I know that whatever these people took from him, he would have given them. And that is why it hurts so bad.”

Madrigal was a 26-year veteran of the department, and was planning to retire -- he had even scheduled a retirement party at the Belle Isle Pavilion on June 12, said Mike Nevin, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association. Madrigal was also a member of the department's honor guard, a special role in which he helped pay tribute to fallen comrades at their funerals.

His colleagues were expecting to see him at a Fire Department event on Saturday, where firefighters wrap Christmas presents for children. The event started at 10 a.m., but Madrigal wasn’t there, Nevin said.

He also had two adult children and was a grandfather, and collected toys for children in need and volunteered to help the homeless.

Also speaking at the memorial, Chief Chaplain Lloyd Hanton with the Detroit Fire Department said: “He’s a hard act to follow, but he did so much good that it’s our challenge to fill in for him.”

Contact Daniel Bethencourt: [email protected] or 313-223-4531. Follow on Twitter at @_dbethencourt.

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