Bio & Incident Details
Age: 45
Tour: 15 years
Badge # 19
Cause: Gunfire
Incident Date: 10/20/1981
Weapon: Rifle; Automatic
Suspect: Paroled in 2003
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Officer Waverly Brown and Sergeant Edward O'Grady were shot and killed by heavily armed members of a domestic terrorist group, the Weather Underground, who had just robbed a Brinks armored truck of over a million dollars and were attempting to escape. The suspects had just murdered the armored car guard and wounded two other guards before loading themselves into the back of a rental truck to be driven away by accomplices. The truck was stopped at a roadblock manned by several Nyack officers.
One of the female occupants in the cab of the truck told the officers their guns were making her nervous. Thinking they had stopped the wrong truck, the officers began to holster their weapons. Almost immediately afterwards several of the heavily armed men exited the back of the truck and opened fire with automatic weapons, fatally wounding Officer Brown and Sergeant O'Grady.
The suspects fled the scene in different directions but seven men and three women were eventually apprehended and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. One of the female suspects was paroled in August 2003. Another one was released July 15, 2010, and died of cancer a month later. One of the men died in prison December 13, 1986.
A suspect convicted of killing Police Officer John G. Scarangella of the New York City Police Department, was a prime suspect in the murders of Sergeant O'Grady and Officer Brown. When he was arrested for the murder of Officer Scarangella, he was in possession of a gun linked to the murders of Sergeant O'Grady and Officer Brown. That suspect was never charged in these murders.
Officer Brown had been employed with the Nyack Police Department for 15 years and is survived by his mother and three children. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Nyack, Rockland County, New York.
The Weather Underground was also connected to the Black Liberation Army, which was responsible for the murders of at least one dozen other police officers throughout the country. The Weather Underground is believed responsible for the unsolved bombing murder of San Francisco, California, Police Department Sergeant Brian McDonnell on February 16, 1970.
The Black Liberation Army was a violent, radical group that attempted to fight for independence from the United States government in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The BLA was responsible for the murders of more than 10 police officers around the country. They were also responsible for violent attacks around the country that left many police officers wounded.
Related Line of Duty Deaths
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Sergeant Brian V. McDonnell |
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Police Officer Donald W. Sager |
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Police Officer Harold Hamilton |
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Patrolman Joseph A. Piagentini |
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Patrolman Waverly M. Jones |
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Officer Billy Michael Kaylor |
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Sergeant John Victor Young |
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Officer James Richard Greene |
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Police Officer Rocco W. Laurie |
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Police Officer Gregory P. Foster |
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Trooper Werner Foerster |
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Police Officer Sidney L. Thompson |
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Police Officer John G. Scarangella |
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Sergeant Edward J. O'Grady, Jr. |
