Considered one of New York Metropolis’s most infamous cop killers – the gangbanger who murdered Police Officer Edward Byrne as he sat in his patrol automotive in Queens in 1988 — may turn into the forty fourth convicted cop killer sprung from jail within the final eight years when he faces the parole board later this month, The Submit has realized.
The ruthless assassination of the rookie cop by David McClary on the orders of a drug kingpin surprised a metropolis within the throes of the crack epidemic within the Eighties — and have become a nationwide image of the period’s lawlessness.
Byrne was simply 22 and on the drive for only a month when he was ambushed by McClary and three accomplices on Feb. 26, 1988. He was guarding the South Jamaica house of a witness who was planning to testify in opposition to druglord Howard “Pappy” Mason.
McClary snuck up on Byrne as he sat alone in a marked patrol automotive and shot him 5 instances within the head.
Byrne’s killing struck such a chord that then-President Ronald Reagan referred to as his household to supply condolences. President George H.W. Bush later introduced the officer’s badge with him to the Oval Workplace, the place he stored it on his desk.
Mason, 65, who ordered the cop’s homicide from jail, was sentenced to life in jail for drug-racketeering prices that included Byrne’s homicide. He’s presently being held at Devens, a federal jail in Ayers, Mass., data present. The three accomplices had been all convicted of homicide.
The getaway driver, Scott Cobb, was paroled in 2023. Two different males, Todd Scott and Phillip Copeland, stay behind bars — for now.
McClary, now 59 and on the Wende Correctional Facility close to Buffalo, has served 36 years of a most life sentence. He comes up for parole on an unknown date later this month — his eighth listening to up to now.
The Byrne household, talking out for the primary time in a long time, is outraged he’s even being allowed to smell freedom.
“This was somebody who was clearly probably the most culpable and harmful out of the group, however to this present day he nonetheless denies any information of what was going to occur that evening — despite the fact that it was very clear that all of them sat across the desk and deliberate this and drew straws on who was going to execute my brother,” Kenneth Byrne informed The Submit.
“This was a completely stunning crime, executing a uniformed police officer in a marked automotive defending a witness who was being tortured by this drug gang,” mentioned Byrne, 56 and a lawyer, including that the witness’ house was firebombed.
“He shouldn’t be launched. I don’t care what alleged accomplishments he has in jail,” mentioned Byrne, who’s getting ready a sufferer influence assertion he’ll ship to the parole board.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed 12 of the state parole board’s present 16 members.
The board has launched 43 cop-killers since 2017, after Cuomo reshaped how the board decides whether or not to grant parole.
The brand new pointers, which had been backed by liberal activists, require the board to contemplate an inmate’s “progress” behind bars, in addition to their threat to society, with such elements outweighing the egregiousness of the unique crime, sources informed The Submit. The board additionally considers age — and plenty of paroled inmates have been 60 or older.
“Andrew Cuomo stacked the parole board with radicals and adjusted the foundations to favor criminals over cops — and now 43 cop killers have walked free due to it,” Republican mayoral hopeful Curtis Sliwa mentioned. “Nobody who murders a police officer ought to ever see the sunshine of day once more.”
Cuomo by way of a spokesperson declined to deal with the criticism, besides level out all of his appointments to the “impartial board … had been confirmed by the state Senate below each Republican and Democratic management.”
Todd Shapiro, a spokesman for Mayor Adams, mentioned that “as a former NYPD officer who has personally skilled the profound lack of colleagues within the line of responsibility . . . Adams urges the parole board to disclaim David McClary’s launch.
“We should uphold the precept that the homicide of a police officer is an insupportable offense, warranting the total measure of justice. Our dedication to the protection and respect of our regulation enforcement group necessitates unwavering assist and the reassurance that such sacrifices are forgotten.”
Byrne’s brother mentioned he will get the transcripts of cop-killer’s parole hearings.
“Since the usual for parole modified below Gov. Cuomo, I’ve learn I don’t know what number of transcripts . . . as a result of I get a duplicate of what every defendant says earlier than I submit my assertion, they usually all give attention to the progress they’ve made in jail, whether or not it’s packages or lessons or possibly they didn’t get in a battle,” he mentioned.
“And it fully disregards that my brother by no means acquired the chance to develop his life. . . . He deliberate to get engaged and to get married and have a household and he by no means acquired to go any additional, and so his improvement ended.”
Byrne added angrily, “That’s nice they’re finishing packages, however it fully disregards any sufferer of a murder, how their future was taken from them, and the influence it has on their households and their lives and their futures.
“Fairly frankly, I believe the system’s the other way up.
“I imply, you could have a legislature sitting in Albany who’re conscious of this, have the flexibility to go laws and alter it, and to this present day . . . nobody has finished something they usually’re simply accelerating releases of harmful folks, particularly cop killers,” he mentioned.
The evening Eddie Byrne left for his final shift on Feb. 26, 1988, his retired police officer father informed him the identical factor to him he at all times mentioned: “Have a protected tour,” his brother mentioned.
That was the final his household would see of the younger cop.
“The subsequent morning, I’m answering a door at 5 a.m. and there’s a police chaplin standing there and you realize that’s unhealthy information,” recalled Byrne, who lived in North Massapequa on the time. “I watched my mother and father collapse after which go to trial every single day for months . . . They had been simply drained and devastated.”
Byrne has since misplaced his father and his brother, Larry Byrne, who was the NYPD’s high lawyer till his dying in 2020. His mom, Ann, is 88 and lives in an assisted residing house.
“She’s acquired photos of Eddie all around the condominium,” Byrne mentioned, describing a shelf that comprises one among her favourite photographs of a smiling, uniformed Eddie standing subsequent to their Christmas tree shortly earlier than he was killed.
“I’m hoping I’m not sitting down having one other dialog together with her earlier than it hits the information telling her that the person who put 5 bullets in her son’s head is getting out of jail,” he mentioned, “as a result of I don’t know if she would survive this one.”
Police Benevolent Affiliation President Patrick Hendry is asking New Yorkers to go to the union’s web site and signal a petition “to maintain this cop killer behind bars.”
“After Eddie was assassinated, cops and New Yorkers banded collectively to ship a message that vicious drug sellers don’t rule our streets,” he mentioned. “We can’t let the parole board erase that message.”
