Memorial to Irving Rosenburg

End of Watch: February 15, 1942
Rank: Auxiliary Officer, Badge No. N/A
Years of Service: 23
Age: 53
Location of Death: 13th and M streets, NW

Circumstance:

Officer Rosenburg and his partner were responding to a shooting call with red lights and siren sounding, when a city bus failed to yield the right of way to an emergency vehicle. Officer Rosenburg died from a broken back and skull. His partner survived.  Officer Rosenburg was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Biography

Officer Rosenburg had served for 23 years.  He had a wife and two children.

Articles from the Washington Post – transcribed by Dave Richardson, MPD/Ret.
THE DEATH OF OFFICER IRVING ROSENBURG. (THE WASHINGTON POST MISSPELLED HIS NAME ROSENBERG.) WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE DATED FEBRUARY 12, 1942, PAGE 12 Policemen Hurt As Car, Bus Crash.

Two policemen were seriously injured last night when their scout car collided with a Capitol Transit bus at Thirteenth and M streets. Private Irving Rosenberg, 53, of Second Precinct, suffered a skull fracture, and his partner, Private R. Eugene Dubielewicz, 50, broken ribs.

The accident occurred when the officers were responding to a call to settle a domestic squabble. Evening traffic was tied up for about a half hour. Neither driver nor passengers of the bus were hurt. (Details on page 15) Two scout car policemen were seriously injured in a collision with a bus at Thirteenth and M streets, NW yesterday while responding to a call to settle a family squabble. Privates Irving Rosenberg, 50, and R. Eugene Dubielewicz, 52, were removed to Emergency Hospital in an unconscious condition.

The accident occurred a few minutes after 5 p.m., when thousands of office workers were on their way home. Traffic in four directions at the intersection was tied up for a half-hour. The scout car, in which the officers were riding, was wedged between the bus and a safety zone platform. According to police, the scout car was going east on M Street in response to the call of a shooting in the 1300 block of Eleventh Street, NW.

The bus, owned by the Capitol Transit Co., was crossing the intersection proceeding south on Thirteenth Street. The two vehicles came together with a resounding crash. The bus driver, Leroy Kelly, 24, of 1406 Webster Street, NW told police he did not hear the cruiser siren. He was charged with failure to give the police car the right of way. Neither Kelly nor the seven bus passengers were hurt.

The policemen are both veterans and attached to Second Precinct station. Rosenberg lives at 1104 Allison Street, NW; Danielewicz, at 5330 37th Street, NW.

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PARTIAL WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE DATED FEBRUARY 16, 1942, PAGE 13
Policeman Hurt in Bus Crash Dies Pedestrian Killed Near Alexandria;
Fairfax Mechanic Fatally Injured D.C. traffic deaths this year…….18 Deaths this date last year……..15 Traffic deaths last year……….95

The death of a Washington policeman brought the District’s traffic toll for the year to 18 yesterday while in nearby Virginia two men were killed and a State Trooper barely escaped serious injury while directing traffic at the scene of one of the fatalities. District Policeman Irving Rosenberg, 53, who suffered a skull fracture and broken back when the scout car he was driving collided with a bus Wednesday, died at 7:20 a.m. in Emergency Hospital. He never regained consciousness.

Danielewicz was reported yesterday to be recovering at Emergency Hospital. Leroy A. Kelley, 24, of 1405 Webster Street, NW, driver of the bus, was charged with failing to yield the right of way to an emergency vehicle and driving with faulty brakes. He posted $600 bail and will appear at a coroner’s inquest, the date of which has not been set.

Funeral services for Rosenberg will be held at his home, 1104 Allison Street, NW, tomorrow at 11:45 a.m. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Rosenberg was appointed to the force in 1911 as a crossing officer when men on that detail were paid by public utility companies. In 1919 he was assigned to the regular force and served as a hack inspector and station clerk. He was made a precinct detective in 1937, a position he held for three months.

For the past several years, he had been assigned to the Second Precinct as a uniformed patrolman. He leaves his wife, Mrs. Ella Rosenberg; a son, Marshall, and a daughter, Mrs. Lewis B. Land, of Clifton Forge, Va.