By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Staggered by the murder of two young Harlem cops, the NYPD paused yesterday to recall another grievous milestone — Jan. 27, 1972, when two other young officers were gunned down in the East Village by the Black Liberation Army.
A trio of gunmen ambushed NYPD Officers Gregory Foster, 22, and Rocco Laurie, 23, near Avenue B and E. 11th St. They came up from behind, opened fire, then unholstered the cops’ revolvers and fired again.
Foster, struck eight times, died at the scene, leaving behind a wife and two toddlers. His partner, struck seven times, died at Bellevue Hospital five hours later.
On Thursday, Laurie’s wife, Adelaide Laurie, 73, speaking at a ceremony outside her slain husband’s command, the Ninth Precinct stationhouse, lamented what happened in Harlem last Friday night, when an ex-con shot officers Jason Rivera, 22, and Wilbert Mora, 27.
Rivera died that night and Mora died on Tuesday. The gunman, shot by a third cop at the scene, died on Monday.
Adelaide Laurie recounted the night her life changed forever — from the moment Buster the family dog barked up a storm as cops pounded on the door of the family’s Staten Island home to when she learned her husband had died.
“They took me to see him, and I saw my beloved on a gurney and I kissed him for the last time and I touched his face,” she said. “My life has never been the same since that awful night. I remember all these things every day of my life and time does not heal all wounds.
“You do go on and you do try to live your life as best as you can, but it’s a wound that will never ever heal.”
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Foster’s relatives, including his grandson, who is also named Gregory Foster and is a 9th Precinct officer with the same shield number, were also at the remembrance but did not speak.
But NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell told both families the department will never forget.
“Whether it’s 50 years or 150 years outside, here on these streets will be filled with NYPD officers past and present every Jan. 27,” she said. “We will stand in honor of our fallen.”
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Two of the prime suspects were later killed in shootouts with police. Twymon Meyers died in the Bronx while Ronald Carter perished in a gunfight with cops in in St. Louis. The shot that killed Carter was fired by an accomplice using Laurie’s stolen gun.
Robert Vickers, a convicted heroin trafficker, has long been suspected of being the third gunman but has never been charged.
Vincent D’Adamo, 72, was a 9th Precinct rookie cop at the time of the double murder. He traveled 100 miles from Philadelphia to be at Thursday’s ceremony and said the assassinations, at a time when police were routinely targeted for executions by radicals, have left him with emotional wounds he’s never fully addressed.
But he said he never thought once about finding another line of work, even though being on patrol meant never being fully at ease.
“There was a paranoia,” he said. “But I worked my whole 20 years here. I loved being a cop.”
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