Fifth Avenue Shut Down For Fallen Cop's Memorial Mass

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A long stretch of Fifth Avenue was shut down Wednesday morning during a memorial mass for a police officer killed in the line of duty, NYPD officials said.

The avenue was closed off between West 57th and 49th streets while mass was given at St. Patrick's Cathedral, police officials said. The NYPD Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner Legal Matters Lawrence Byrne attended the mass, which marked the 30th anniversary of the death of Edward Byrne.

Byrne was 22 when he was killed in February of 1988 while on patrol in Jamaica, Queens. Byrne was a rookie on the police force, joining just a few months before his death, the New York Times reported on the 25th anniversary of his killing.

The rookie cop was stationed alone near a police informant's house on 107th Avenue and Inwood Street when four men surrounded the vehicle and shot him, the Times reported. Byrne's murder prompted the NYPD to create a tactical narcotics team in order to crack down on the city's drug gangs, the Times reported.

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