NYPD honors two young cops gunned down 50 years ago

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As New Yorkers mourned the ambush deaths of two young cops last week, the NYPD has not forgotten two other officers who suffered a similar fate 50 years ago.

Police officers Rocco Laurie and Gregory Foster, who were killed in an ambush on the Lower East Side on Jan. 27, 1972, were honored with a memorial ceremony outside the 9th Precinct stationhouse on Thursday morning.

“Today is a very hard day for me and my family,” said NYPD cop George Foster III, the slain cop’s grandson. “It is amazing that they are still remembered and we are truly grateful.”

“I can’t believe how many people still remember my grandfather,” he said at the Lower Manhattan precinct where both he and his grandfather served the city.

Retired NYPD Detective John McAuliffe said the pair is certainly remembered.

“Every rookie who walks in the 9th Precinct is told of the PO Gregory Foster and PO Rocco Laurie story,” he said. “It was not lost on anyone the parallels between today’s ceremony and the upcoming funerals of PO Jason Rivera and PO Wilbert Mora.

Officers Gregory Foster (left) and Rocco Laurie were fatally shot by alleged Black Liberation Army members in an ambush on Jan. 27, 1972. AP

“They were both assassinated by cowards who killed them because they were police officers,” McAuliffe added. “Got bless them.”

Jason Rivera, 22, and Wilbert Mora, 27, were shot and killed by career criminal Lashawn McNeil during a domestic disturbance call in Harlem on Friday.

Laurie and Foster were walking a beat on Avenue B and East 11th Street a half-century earlier when they were shot in the back by members of the Black Liberation Army, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

Gregory Foster III, grandson of slain NYPD officer Gregory Foster, mourns his grandfather. Gabriella Bass
Retired NYPD Detective John McAuliffe says rookie officers are required to learn about slain cops Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie. Gabriella Bass

“Today is very emotional,” Laurie’s widow, Adelaide Laurie, said during Thursday’s ceremony. “Our hearts are broken over the loss of two more young men. Rocco was 23 and Greg was 22. So senseless. So much to live for and so much to achieve.

“My life has never been the same since that awful night,” she added. “Time does not heal wounds. You do go on and try to live your life. It is a wound that will never heal.”

Speaking at the ceremony, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the city will never forget the fallen cops — then or now.

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell consoles Adelaide Laurie, widow of slain officer Rocco Laurie. Gabriella Bass
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell consoles officer Gregory Foster III inside the 9th Precinct. Gabriella Bass

“We stand strong in the face of the great challenge and tragedy,” Sewell said. “We do this in honor of Patrolman Rocco Laurie and Patrolman Gregory Foster. I am in awe and truly grateful for the honorable work being done by our officers.”

One of the gunmen sought in the murders of Laure and Foster was shot and killed less than a month later in a shootout with police in St. Louis.

Another, who had Laurie’s service revolver when he was arrested in the St. Louis incident, was extradited to New York.

Slain NYPD officers Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie have plaques hung inside the 9th Precinct. Gabriella Bass

He was acquitted in 1973 — only to be sentenced to 25 years in Missouri.

A third suspect was arrested in New Orleans in 1973 and sentenced to life in prison in the deaths of two other NYPD cops in 1971 — Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones.

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