NYPD readies annual tribute to Officer Edward Byrne, shot dead on duty in '88
NYPD Officer Edward Byrne, a North Massapequa native, was shot dead by drug dealers in 1988 while on duty. Credit: NYPD
Early in the morning of Feb. 26, 1988, NYPD Officer Edward Byrne, sitting alone in his patrol car as he guarded a home in Jamaica, Queens, was brutally executed by a group of drug dealers.
The assassination of Byrne, 22, a native of North Massapequa, stunned the nation. It also became a signature moment in the crack epidemic of the 1980s that fueled both an exploding crime rate and a climate of lawlessness in New York City, while sparking calls for action from elected officials.
More than 30 years later, NYPD brass and officers, like they have for the past three decades, will gather at midnight Tuesday at the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica to honor and remember Byrne. Among those planning to attend are NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and former commissioner William Bratton.
Cops will hold the memorial right after the midnight roll call, said Lawrence Byrne, the slain officer's brother and former NYPD legal counsel.
“We do this ceremony at this time every year because Eddie was ambushed at about 3:10 a.m. on February 26, just five days after his 22nd birthday, in uniform at his fixed post,” Byrne said.
Afterward, the group is scheduled to travel to the Inwood section of Queens where Edward Byrne was killed guarding the home of a witness only known by the name Arjune.
Four men, all in their 20s, were arrested and brought to trial for Byrne’s killing. Evidence in the case included a videotaped confession from one of the suspects, Scott Cobb, who stated the order for the execution-style slaying came from a jailed drug dealer, Harold “Pappy” Mason, as a message to cops in retaliation for his arrest on an unrelated gun charge.
The parents of NYPD Officer Edward Byrne are comforted by the slain officer's brother, Lawrence Byrne, at the officer's funeral in 1988. Credit: Newsday/Phillip Davies
Mason allegedly said, according to Cobb, that “we lose one, they lose one.”
President George H.W. Bush was so moved after Byrne’s death that he kept the cop's badge in his Oval Office desk, Lawrence Byrne said.
“This was a terrible and incredible crime, because it was a crime that was intended to send a message to law enforcement and try to intimidate law enforcement, Bryne said. "It had the opposite effect."
The four defendants were ultimately convicted of murdering the young officer. Cobb, Todd Scott and Phil Copeland were convicted in 1989. A fourth defendant, David McClary, was convicted in a separate trial.
A street in Queens is named after fallen NYPD Officer Edward Byrne. Credit: NYPD / James P. O'Neill
Trial evidence included a city medical examiner's graphic testimony about the catastrophic injuries to Byrne’s head from five shots that essentially destroyed his brain.
Cobb, Scott, Copeland and McClary all come up for parole again this year, Lawrence Byrne said. Mason, convicted on federal charges, including ordering Edward Byrne's killing, was sentenced to life in prison without parole, he said.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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