'Enduring Tribute' Expressed For 11 Fallen Police Officers

Friends and family of 11 police officers who died either in the line of duty or from illnesses related to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were joined by the department's top brass yesterday for a memorial service at 1 Police Plaza.

The service, at which the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, and Mayor Bloomberg spoke, culminated with the unveiling of plaques carrying the fallen officers' names.

"While today's commemorations make permanent the memory of these brave men, there can be no more enduring tribute than the respect and support of the public whom all officers are sworn to protect and serve," Mr. Kelly said. "New York City police officers accept that in the performance of their duties, lives are at stake, including their own. Today we convey nothing less than the highest regard for their service and sacrifice."

Of the officers memorialized, eight died as a result of rescue, clean-up, or recovery duties performed following the terrorist attacks. For several of the family members of those fallen officers, the memorial was the culmination of a long fight for recognition.

"It gives a just honor to Jimmy and to the other officers who worked that day and the days that followed at ground zero," the father of Detective James Zadroga, Joseph Zadroga, said. After Zadroga died in 2006, his father was vocal in his criticisms of Mr. Bloomberg for what he saw as the city's insistence that his son's death, which was related to respiratory illness, was not a result of the attacks.

"I still feel that Bloomberg doesn't agree that he's a hero," Zadroga's mother, Linda Zadroga, said. "Bloomberg doesn't acknowledge him because he doesn't want anybody to be sick from the World Trade Center."

Other officers memorialized, included two auxiliary police officers who died at the hands of an armed gunman in the West Village, Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Pekearo, and Detective Russel Timoshenko, who was fatally shot during a routine car stop in Brooklyn.