Police Officer Edward Byrne was gunned down.
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Cop’s Murder Payback In Crack War
By LIZ GOFF
KEW GARDENS-DEC. 22, 1989: More than 100 cops gathered inside a Kew Gardens courtroom this morning to hear a jury foreman announce a guilty verdict for the convicted drug dealer who ordered the assassination of Queens Police Officer Eddie Byrne.
Until his arrest and conviction on drug charges, Howard “Pappy” Mason ran a multimillion-dollar crack ring in Southeast Queens. Mason inherited the operation of the “BeBo’s” in the late 1980s, when a team of Queens cops busted drug kingpin Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols.
Both Fat Cat and Mason were busted, in part, based on the testimony of South Jamaica homeowner “Arjune.”
When Mason, 27, ordered the cop killing in early 1988 from his jail cell at Rikers Island, he made it clear to BeBo’s henchmen David McClary and Philip “Marshal” Copeland – the “Cat” wanted his crew to deliver a dead cop in retaliation for his own conviction. “We lose one, they lose one,” Mason told the hit men.
Rookie cop Eddie Byrne was just four days past his 22nd birthday when he sat alone in a patrol car on the frigid night of Feb. 26, 1988, guarding Arjune’s home from retaliation by the BeBo’s.
A “canine cage” blocked the young cop’s view of the mean street behind him. So Eddie Byrne couldn’t see the beat up yellow Dodge in his rearview mirror as it rolled up toward the end of Inwood Street with his assassins inside.
Suddenly, the face of a crackhead appeared at Byrne’s passenger window. Byrne reached for the holstered gun in his lap. He never got a chance to use it.
Another crackhead, standing by the driver’s side of the car, held a nickel-plated revolver roughly eight inches from Byrne’s head. The cop was just turning to his left when the first round tore through the left side of his face, exiting at the top of his skull. A second flash sent a bullet into the dying cop’s right temple. Three more shots followed, and Eddie Byrne was dead.
Philip “Marshal” Copeland |
The Case Unfolds
Weeks later, an anonymous caller told detectives at the 103rd Squad where they could find Todd Scott and Scott Cobb – two low-level drug dealers involved in the cop killing. The detectives grabbed their vests and radios, and prepared to take down the assassins.
The cops spotted Cobb as he walked outside a Bellerose house, and pounced on the man who would later be identified as the driver of the yellow Dodge. Moments later, the cops saw Scott peering out from a doorway at the house. They busted down the door and found Scott buried under a pile of clothing in a bedroom closet. Cops scooped up Copeland and McClary in short order.
Copeland, Scott and Cobb were sentenced to 25-years-to-life in jail. On June 28, 1989, McClary became the last of the four sent away for a minimum of 25 years.
After the sentencing, McClary grinned, turned toward the crowd – and blew a kiss to Byrne’s mother, seated in a front row of the courtroom.
Outside the courthouse Matthew Byrne, Eddie’s father, slumped over his open car door and sobbed.
