Will Jimeno Tells How He Found the ‘Sunrise Through The Darkness’ on The Bowhunter Podcast

DENVER (June 11, 2026) - The Bowhunter Podcast, in partnership with Poncho Outdoors, recently sat down for an incredibly inspiring conversation with bowhunter, retired New York/New Jersey Port Authority (PAPD) police officer, 9/11 Survivor and American hero Will Jimeno, who was one of the few to be pulled alive from the rubble of New York's Twin Towers following that tragic terror attack 25 years ago this September. The son of Columbian immigrants who brought him to the United States when he was just two years old, Jimeno grew up in a family trying to live their American dream in suburban New Jersey, and after school he joined the U.S. Navy, and upon fulfilling that service obligation, he attended community college to study law enforcement and then applied to attend the PAPD Police Academy. Jimeno was a graduated member of the Academy's Centennial Class and new police officer working at the Port Authority's Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan that fateful day in 2001.

"That morning, my job was to basically look at the doorways of the building that I was in front of - what we have in the mornings and the afternoons is 'the rush' - in the morning people are coming into New York City and in the evening they're leaving, and I got to tell you, it's something. If you've never been to New York City, it's really something. It's thousands upon thousands of people just coming from New Jersey, Connecticut, Upstate New York, other parts of the country, and it's just thousands of people. It's overwhelming, but I grew up around that, so I'm used to it. I was actually facing the doorway, and I have an awning above me, and I think it was about 8:45 when I kinda looked to my right, and once that awning stopped you could see the sky, and on the corner was Sargeant Ross with two fellow officers, Pat McInerny and Eric Sanchez, and they were standing there, and I just happened to look over there, and all of a sudden I saw a shadow cover the whole intersection of 42^nd and 5^th Avenue, and if you've never been to New York City, an intersection is really large, so this shadow just covered it for a split second, and I thought that was odd, but it's New York City, and I couldn't really hear anything because the traffic was behind me, so I just went back to my job. But shortly after that our radios crackled and they asked us all to come back to the police desk…"

He didn't realize it at the time, but Jimeno had seen the passing shadow of American Flight 11 as it flew toward the World Trade Center (WTC) North Tower. Back at headquarters, he saw the TV coverage and knew instantly that it had to be a terrorist attack. Jimeno quickly called his wife, Allison, who was very pregnant at the time, and then he jumped on a bus headed straight to the WTC's smoking North Tower. Newly trained in the use of Scott Air-Paks, once on the scene Jimeno donned his gear and joined two other Academy grads - Antonio "A-Rod" Rodrigues and Dominick Pezzulo - to follow Emergency Service Unit Sgt. John McLoughlin into WTC Building 5.

Because of his vast experience and extensive knowledge of the World Trade Center complex, Sgt. McLoughlin was the right man to follow. As Jimeno and the team pushed a cart full of rescue equipment from Building 5 into a corridor leading to North Tower, the hallway began to shudder. "That's when we heard a humongous boom! …I turned around to where we'd come from, [the team was nearly to the lobby of Tower 2] and all I could see was a fireball the size of a house. Remember what I said about following someone in who knows what they're doing so your chances of getting out are better? Well, at that moment, I'm holding onto my helmet and looking up, and everything is shaking like an earthquake, and Sgt. McLoughlin yelled, 'Run toward the freight elevator!' I didn't know those buildings. I had been there like three times for protests. Sgt. McLoughlin had helped set up the security after the '93 bombing. It was a miracle that we stopped in front of the doorway. So, we ran. Dominick started running toward the elevator, and I saw Sgt. McLoughlin behind me. And, that's when I asked myself, 'What did you get yourself into?'

"…The light started flickering," continued Jimeno, "and I could see brown stuff coming down, which I now know was from the Tower coming down. So, as Tower 2 was coming down, to show his [Sgt. McLoughlin's] experience, if you see a building coming down, you'll see debris going in four directions, and one of those directions was coming right at us, so Sgt. McLoughlin actually saw the wall of debris coming toward us and in a split second he thought, 'What do they do in the Middle East? They'll blow something up, let the first responders come in; kill them again.' So, he thought it was a car bomb. So he said, 'Gotta get to the freight elevator; get around the freight elevator because the beams and shaft could deflect the explosion.' You talk about experience!"

"So, we're running. Dominick started to turn and I followed Dominick," continued Jimeno, "and that's when something big picked me up, threw me on my back at a 45-degree angle, and I can't even explain it. It's like a million freight trains coming down on you, and the first thing you do as a police officer, your first line of defense, is your communications, so I went for my radio, which is on my left lapel, and I'm yelling '813!' which was our code for, 'I'm in trouble. Everybody come!' And I'm yelling '813! Officers down!' and debris is hitting me, concrete is hitting me, something hits my helmet so hard - I had a chinstrap on - it ripped my helmet off and all I could do was cover up after I lost my radio. It seemed like it lasted forever, and then - shush! - silence."

At first it was pitch black, but as the dust settled a dim light shown through an opening about 30 feet above Jimeno, but he was pinned down, Dominick was struggling to free himself so he could help the others, and Sgt. McLoughlin was sealed out of view behind a slab of concrete. They were all trapped in what rescuers later described as "a cocoon of concrete," and it was only the beginning of their struggle for survival.

Whether you're familiar with Will Jimeno's story or not, this is one podcast that is absolutely worth your time, and whatever your personal challenges may be, you will find encouragement in this story of triumph over trajedy.

This episode is now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Podbean. Watch the full episode here. Additionally, pick up the latest issue of Bowhunter Magazine on newsstands or subscribe.

"What an honor it was to spend an hour with 9/11 Survivor Will Jimeno," said Host Christian Berg. "He's much too humble to admit it, but he's a true American hero, not only for his example of selfless service that September morning, but also for his example of how to live afterwards, to work through his physical and psychological pain to be a loving husband and father and to faithfully honor and respect his fellow first responders who gave the ultimate sacrifice. I'm also thankful that he has been a longtime friend of the Bowhunter brand and that he has contributed to our TV and magazine efforts, and I look forward to his sharing many more bowhunting stories in the years to come. To learn more, check out the new book, "Sunrise Through The Darkness," which Will Jimeno co-authored with Michael Moats and is available now on Amazon.com.

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