NYPD Honors Two 'Fallen'

By ARI PAUL

Two Police Officers who died on the job within weeks of each other last year had their names inscribed on the New York City Police Memorial in lower Manhattan during an Oct. 12 ceremony.

FRANCIS J. HENNESSY

Officer Francis J. Hennessy of the 70th Precinct was responding to a call Jan. 9, 2006 in Brooklyn when he got out of his car, collapsed due to a brain aneurysm and later died at age 35. Officer Kevin M. Lee Jan. 27, 2006 helped spot thieves making off with a laptop from a store on Manhattan's Upper East Side but collapsed while pursuing them. He died at Lenox Hill Hospital. He was 31.

"For Officer Hennessy, a native of Ireland, joining the NYPD capped a personal pursuit of the American dream, and during his eight years on the force he gave his job everything he had: His honesty, his integrity, his passion and his total commitment," Mayor Bloomberg said at the dedication. "In fact, he often took his meals in his squad car rather than the precinct house, just so that he'd be ready to roll if he ever got the call."

Officer Hennessy, who had eight years on the job, was survived by a wife and two daughters.

KEVIN M. LEE

"Officer Lee was also living out his dream, and by all accounts he was born for the job, with his keen powers of perception and near photographic memory. He didn't need much more than a quick glance to spot trouble brewing or to pick out a career criminal from a crowd," Mayor Bloomberg said. "And that helped Kevin rack up more than 200 arrests over his 10-year career, although he never bragged about any of them."

Officer Lee is survived by a wife and son.

The Mayor and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly unveiled the part of the wall bearing the two officers' names with members of their families.

710 Remembered

The memorial displays the names of 710 NYPD members who died in the line of duty since 1849.

Mayor Bloomberg noted that the two officers honored were part of a generation of the NYPD that vigorously fought crime and helped restore order in a once crime-ridden metropolis.

"They helped drive New York's crime rate to levels not seen since the early 1960s, making the safest big city in the nation even safer," he said. "And the names on this wall will also remind us of the work that we still have left to do to continue to make our neighborhoods as safe as they can be."