Plaques on 9th Pct. wall commemorate martyred officers Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie.

t 10:45 p.m. on January 27, 1972, two rookie patrol officers, Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie, were mercilessly gunned down on the corner of 11th Street and Avenue B by members of the urban terrorist group known as the Black Liberation Army. The cold-blooded assassins unleashed a thundering volley of shots into the backs of the two cops and, as the pair went down, stood over them and fired again and again. Officer Laurie took six slugs, Officer Foster eight.

Foster and Laurie were just two of the casualties of a long war the BLA waged against police officers — with names like Piagentini and Jones, Binetti and Curry among the victims in blue, and names like George Jackson and Joanne Chesimard among the assassins or their accomplices. In the 33 years that have followed the murder of Foster and Laurie, all but one of their killers have been brought to justice, either for those crimes or others. And, because of the relentless persistence of two dedicated detectives, that killer, too, may soon have to pay the price. Those detectives are Tom Nerney, recently retired from the NYPD Major Case Squad, and Tom McHale of the Port Authority Police Dept., who is assigned to the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force and also on loan to the NYPD Major Case Squad. Nerney has been working on the Foster-Laurie and similar cases for many years, and he continues to investigate them following his reluctant retirement. In many ways, he has passed the baton to McHale, but both continue to follow active leads in pursuit of this killer. Thanks to their efforts, in April 2001 the Foster-Laurie case was upgraded from the Cold to the Major Case Squad. Typically, Nerney gives McHale the credit and vice-versa. The truth is, both have been instrumental in keeping this quest for justice alive.

They need your help. They are asking members of the service to generate calls to the Major Case Squad or Crime Stoppers in an effort to advance this investigation. Rewards are being offered for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible. The pertinent telephone numbers:

Last Jan. 27, 33 years to the day from when Foster and Laurie were gunned down, Pat Lynch and other PBA leaders joined relatives, friends, police widows and present-day members of the 9th Pct. to commemorate the fallen officers. They visited the memorial plaques that grace the station house wall and made a pilgrimage to the site on 11th St. and Avenue B where the officers were slain. In top photo, left, Pat Lynch stands between Manhattan South Trustee John Flynn and PBA First Vice-President John Puglissi. In top photo, right, also at the site are (l-r) Gregory Foster's brother-in-law, P.O. Carlos Thomas, of the 75th Pct.; retired Major Case Squad Det. Tom Nerney; 9th Pct. Sgt. Richard Mack; and Det. Tom McHale of the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force. In bottom photo, Det. McHale speaks to (l-r) Gregory Foster's father, Clyde Foster; line-of-duty widow Maria Dziergowski; Lorraine Shanley, member of the board of the Survivors of the Shield; and 9th Pct. Sgt. Vickie D'Angelo.