Paroling the four men who assassinated rookie cop Edward Byrne in 1988 would send a message of injustice and threaten officers everywhere — particularly since the coldhearted killers have never shown remorse, the slain officer’s brother told The Post.
“We have to make sure these people are never given parole. They set out to kill a police officer,” said Byrne’s brother Larry, 52, as the murderers prepare to seek their freedom in November.
“They’ve never shown remorse for what they did. They never said they were sorry,” he said.
US Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is supporting the family in pushing to keep the killers behind bars.
“This . . . was one of the most despicable murders in NYPD history,” Schumer told The Post.
Giving the killers parole “would be a slap in the face to justice and to police officers who patrol our streets today,” he added.
Schumer has written a letter to the state Division of Parole, urging officials to reject the killers.
Thugs Philip Copeland, Scott Cob, Todd Scott and David McClary executed Byrne as he sat in a marked patrol car guarding the house of a drug-case witness in South Jamaica, Queens.
Byrne was shot five times in the head on Feb. 26, 1988, just a few days after his 22nd birthday.
He was murdered for $8,000 in blood money from drug boss Howard “Pappy” Mason, who had been arrested that week and offered the cash to anyone who killed a police officer in retaliation, officials said.
The slaying shocked the nation and became a defining moment in the city’s fight against crime, particularly violence associated with crack cocaine.
Schumer, in his letter, said, “We must continue to send a strong signal that you will serve the maximum time if you decide to murder a police officer.’’
Each killer had been sentenced to 25 years to life. Mason is doing life.
Larry Byrne said he and his two brothers will provide victim-impact statements to the parole board on Oct. 5, saying of the killers’ first bid for freedom, “It brings back very sad memories.”
But, he added, “We’re prepared to go and . . . do everything we lawfully can to make sure they don’t get paroled.”
If the thugs were released, he said, “It would greatly diminish one of the worst crimes ever committed in our city.”