Thousands of fellow NYPD officers attended Det. Brian Moore’s funeral last Friday morning in Seaford, L.I. Photo Courtesy of NYPD News.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s shield with the traditional black mourning band. Photo Courtesy of NYPD News.
Brian Moore, a cop from a cop family who was shot to death last week in Queens Village, was laid to rest last Friday morning on Long Island.
Thousands of family, friends, the 25-year-old’s NYPD brothers and sisters, and law enforcement officials from all parts of the country paid their respects at St. James Roman Catholic Church in Seaford, the same sanctuary in which slain Police Officer Edward Byrne’s funeral was held 27 years ago.
Moore, a five-year veteran assigned to the 105th Precinct’s Anti-Crime Unit, was gunned down allegedly by career-criminal Demetrius Blackwell, 35, as Moore and partner, Erik Jansen, were patrolling 104th Road near 212th Street in plainclothes and an unmarked vehicle.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton eulogized the Massapequa, L.I., native last Friday.
“Brian Moore dedicated his life to protecting all of us. He gave what President Abraham Lincoln called ‘the last full measure of devotion to that cause,’” de Blasio noted.
The mayor also cited Moore’s bravery, which, he said, “was matched only by his compassion.” De Blasio posited that these qualities were in Moore’s DNA, “from a family so devoted” to law enforcement. Moore’s father and uncle are retired NYPD sergeants, and his three cousins are also cops.
Bratton posthumously promoted Moore from police officer to detective first grade. He indicated that Moore’s family would receive his new shield 9002.
That number, Bratton noted, follows shields 9000 and 9001, which were bestowed late last year to Detectives Rafael Ramos and WenJian Liu, respectively, after they were assassinated in Brooklyn as they sat sentry in a marked patrol car outside a Bedford-Stuyvesant housing development.
“I hope the 9000 series never sees another—but that is an idle hope,” Bratton acknowledged. “We are the police. Detective Brian Moore knew it, and so do we all.”
Bratton reiterated in his remarks the ideal of community policing, and how the protection of Gotham neighborhoods depends on everyone with a stake in its future.
“The policing of any community, of any city, is not solely incumbent on the police. What is lost is that public safety is a shared responsibility,” Bratton said. “In our democracy, it’s government’s first obligation. But it’s not entirely the government’s burden. We all have a fundamental right to live free from fear, free from crime, and free from disorder—but while we share that right, we also share the duty to secure it. We share the responsibility of adherence to the law. We share the responsibility of keeping each other safe.”
Bratton later echoed de Blasio’s sentiment that Moore “represented the best of New York City,” and closed his tribute to the fallen public servant by calling him a “hero” and a “guardian at the gate.”
“God bless him. God bless his family. And God bless the NYPD.”
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
