US: Former federal prosecutor Lawrence Byrne dies at 61
Lawrence Byrne, a former federal prosecutor, who served as a deputy commissioner of Legal Matters in the New York Police Department from 2014 through 2018, has died.
It was reported that Byrne died on Sunday December 6, 2020, after being transported to a Manhattan hospital on Thursday for a cardiac emergency.
Byrne, 61, was the eldest brother of NYPD Officer Edward Byrne, a 22-year-old rookie officer who was slain in 1988, while sitting guard in his marked patrol car outside the house of a witness in the 103rd Precinct in Queens.
Byrne began, who graduated from Hofstra University, began his career in law enforcement in 1988, as a federal criminal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
He also served in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. His private practice career included a partnership at Pepper Hamilton LLP, and a managing directorship with Freeh Group International Solutions.
While speaking about Byrne’s death, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said, “The Police Department family mourns the death of Larry Byrne.”
“We send our condolences to his family and share in their grief. The Byrne family is one with a tradition of service to the NYPD, and one that has already borne the burden of the line-of-duty death of Larry’s brother, Edward Byrne, who was slain by drug dealers in 1988 at age 22. A generation earlier, Larry’s father served as an officer for 22 years,” he added.
Louis J. Freeh, the director of the F.B.I. from 1993 to 2001, and a friend of Mr. Byrne for more than 30 years said the loss was particularly difficult.
He said his friend was “a wonderful man, a “great father and an extraordinary lawyer”.
He is survived by his mother, brothersp and three sons.