The Nation : Thousands Mourn Slain N.Y. Policeman

About 10,000 police officers attended last rites in Seaford, N.Y., for Edward Byrne, a 22-year-old policeman killed while protecting a witness in a drug case. It was the largest police turnout for a fallen colleague in the history of the New York City Police, authorities said. They came from Texas and Ohio, Maryland and Rhode Island, and they lined the eight blocks approaching St. James Church. Byrne was slain early Friday as he guarded a witness who had complained to police about crack dealers working in the South Jamaica section of Queens. Byrne, eight months on the force, was struck by three shotgun blasts. There have been no arrests. Mayor Edward I. Koch spoke from the altar after the Mass. “If drug trafficking has become so bold that they can engage in the assassination of a police officer, then our whole society is at risk,” he said.