Slain cops memorialized with plaque at NYPD’s detective bureau

The deaths of NYPD detectives Robert Parker and Patrick H. Rafferty more than 13 years ago show how quickly a call can spin wildly out of control.

Both detectives, based out of the 67th Precinct in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, were mortally wounded on Sept. 10, 2004, by a suspect they had been seeking when his mother called police to tell them he was attempting to steal her car.

As both officers responded to the location and confronted the suspect, Marlon Legere, 28, he grabbed Parker’s handgun and shot both cops. Though critically wounded, Parker told other officers that in his patrol car, they would find a picture of the man who shot him. Officers soon tracked Legere down and took him into custody.

Monday, during an poignant, intimate ceremony in the 13th Floor offices of the detective bureau in Police Headquarters in Manhattan, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce dedicated his conference room in honor of Parker and Rafferty.

Parker, 43, of Brooklyn and Rafferty, 39, who along with his wife, Eileen, had raised three children in Bay Shore, died at Kings County Hospital. Legere was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence in Attica.

“Calvin Coolidge once said, ‘The nation which forgets its defenders will itself soon be forgotten,’ ” said Boyce, quoting the nation’s 30th president. “We will not be forgotten. They will not be forgotten.”

Among those witnessing the unveiling of a plaque emblazoned with the detectives’ names were Rafferty’s widow, Eileen, and Parker’s fiance at the time of his death, Mary Moore. Parker’s goddaughter, Malika Moore, also attended. She became an NYPD officer in December and is assigned to the Sixth Precinct. She wears Parker’s old shield: Number 28544.

The ceremony, one of the last official acts by the soon-to-retire Boyce, was the first of two events Monday at police headquarters to honor the 142 detectives since 1872 who have died in the line of duty. Minutes later, Boyce and Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill presided over a larger ceremony for families of those detectives who were either killed on duty or died from illnesses attributed to their work at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Those detectives, Parker and Rafferty among them, were memorialized on a second plaque hanging in Boyce’s outer office.

Rafferty’s widow said the dedication of the chief of detective’s conference room was a pleasant surprise.

“It was very touching, she said.

Mary Moore echoed Boyce’s sentiments.

“Not forgotten at all,” said the resident of Canarsie, Brooklyn, “that is extremely important.”

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.