Newtown Police Officer’s Brother Is Missing

Newtown police Patrol Officer Chris Vadas, 35, is watching and waiting and hoping that somehow he will find his brother, Bradley, 37, who is missing in the collapse of the second World Trade Center tower which was struck by a commercial airliner in a terrorist attack Tuesday.

Bradley Vadas, who is a vice president with the brokerage firm Keefe Bruett and Woods, was on the 89th floor of the tower when the jet hit the building on Tuesday morning, Chris Vadas said. Bradley Vadas lives in Westport.

“We’re just holding out hope and prayer,” Chris said on behalf of his family.

Seventy-five people who were in the brokerage office during the calamity are unaccounted for, Chris Vadas said.

Bradley Vadas contacted his father via cellular telephone after the incident and sounded fearful, telling his father of the calamity, and telling him that he loved his family, according to Officer Vadas.

The Newtown patrolman said he has contacted New York City authorities about locating his brother.

“We’re not giving up hope,” Chris Vadas said. Bradley and Chris have a sister, Melissa, 39, and a step-brother and step-sister.

“I’m kind of devastated right now,” Chris said Thursday morning. “We’re just taking things one step at a time. We can only hope,” he said.

A photographs of Bradley Vadas will be posted at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan as part of the family’s attempts to locate him.

Friends and police department co-workers have been very supportive, Chris Vadas said Thursday.