NEW YORK CITY: Cop Whose Dancing At Gay Pride Parade Went Viral Dies Of 9/11-Related Brain Cancer

Horrible. The New York Daily News reports:



NYPD Officer Michael Hance, who raised eyebrows and made headlines in 2015 for twerking with a reveler at the city’s Gay Pride parade, has died of 9/11-related cancer. He was 44. The 17-year veteran of the NYPD, who worked the bucket brigade in the aftermath of the terror attack on the World Trade Center, died Sunday.

“He always liked to help people,” his brother, Peter Hance, 45, told the Daily News. “He always liked to do good.” Hance, who worked out of the 111th Precinct in Bayside, Queens, was diagnosed with brain cancer in November after he fell in front of his home and complained of feeling dizzy, his brother said. As he fought the disease, the cancer spread to his lungs, liver and chest.

Hance, who wasn’t gay, uplifted the city’s spirits two years ago when a cellphone video of him dancing on duty and in uniform with reveler Aaron Santis at the Manhattan pride parade to the Michael Jackson song “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” went viral. Hance’s family was unsurprised that the beloved cop managed to connect with parade-goers. “That’s just who he was,” his brother said. “He was definitely a people person. He has like 8 million friends.”