Memorial wall of NYPD police officers who died in the line of duty gets 42 more names added

Another 42 names were unveiled Tuesday on a wall dedicated to police officers’ line-of-duty deaths — and all but two of the latest to be memorialized had died of 9/11-related illnesses.

Nearly twice as many officers were memorialized on Tuesday alone for 9/11-related illnesses — 40 — than the 23 who died in the attacks themselves 23 years ago.

"Although we give honor to the men and women that we lost during Sept. 11, the real reflection I believe is on Sept. 12. We got up. We got up. And when we got up, the entire country got up," Mayor Eric Adams said, speaking at a ceremony at the wall, in lower Manhattan. "And today we honor 42 individuals who sacrificed their lives to ensure that we will continue to get up.” 

There are now 1,147 names on the wall, according to Adams spokeswoman Amaris Cockfield.

The cause of the majority of 42 the police deaths are reflective of a broader trend of fatalities connected to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. So many of those who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attacks have died from 9/11-related illnesses that the toll now eclipses the number of first-responders killed that day.

Two of those whose names were added Tuesday had been shot decades ago, and each died recently.

According to the NYPD's press office, one of them was Lawrence Bromm, who died in 2022 because of complications from injuries he sustained in 1977 after being shot, and paralyzed, while investigating a minor traffic crash in Brooklyn. Another was Troy Patterson, an NYPD cop who was shot during an attempted robbery while off-duty in 1990 and spent decades in a vegetative state before dying last year. A city government web page lists him as a line-of-duty death. 

The memorial was first dedicated on Oct. 20, 1997, located at Liberty Street and South End Avenue.

“The water flows down the flume past the granite wall, representing death, and then falls into the open pool. The remaining area around the pool is referred to as the ‘Sacred Precinct’ where contemplation is encouraged,” the memorial’s website says.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.