Twenty-Six Names Added to State Police Officers’ Memorial

New York’s memorial for fallen police officers has added the names of 26 officers, including 19 who died from illnesses that followed their work in the toxic rubble of the World Trade Center 15 years ago.

The 19 were among police trying to find nearly 2,800 people lost after the Twin Towers were hit by hijacked jetliners on Sept. 11, 2001, in lower Manhattan. They stayed in what became a search for bodies from the attack.

They died over the past four years. Sixteen were from the New York Police Department.

Four other officers killed last year in the line of duty were added to the memorial wall, including NYPD Detectives Randolph Holder and Brian Moore, who were shot by suspects. The names of three state game protectors killed more than 50 years ago were also added.

Moore served in an elite unit and made 150 arrests in less than five years until he was gunned down on a street in Queens. Holder grew up in Guyana and was killed by a criminal.

Family, state officials and a phalanx of uniformed officers paid tribute at the memorial Tuesday to all 26 in a small park at Empire State Plaza.

The black granite wall now has 1,413 names from 141 police agencies, officials said. More than half, 798, are from the NYPD.

This article appeared in print on page 28 of the May 11th, 2016 edition of Hamodia.