Cop Shot

by Mike McAlary

An account of the murder of a rookie cop by drug dealers describes the murder and takes readers inside the homes of the killers and the rookie's family. Reprint.

275 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 12, 1990

Reviews

[Seán · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked up amid a street fair on Woodside Avenue (note, $3 Thai coconut shrimp + $1 Ottomanelli sweet onion burger = Q-Boro Gastro Grin), I vaguely remember the Byrne murder hubbub on the news as a 3rd grader, and have subsequently read a bunch on Jamaica Vicinage's infamous 80s crack barons--the Corley Brothers, Fat Cat Nichols, Supreme McGriff, et al.. Having no idea who McAlary was but interested in the story, I was hoping for a Jack Newfield-like tabloid heater with brains. Such futile dreams!

Beyond being studded with annoying errors (guy's a crime reporter for the Daily News, why can't he spell a single Queens neighborhood correctly?), needless explanations of self-explanatory street slang (including a definition of the phrase "what's up", no joke), and an inability to render with any dynamism the personal life of major figures in the story, McAlary also sports a serious and debilitating hard-on for salt-of-the-earth, beat-a-perp cops. Byrne's death was a horrific crime, but McAlary's tough guy sympathy for the DA's office and police force blinds him to serious improprieties and violations of law and ethics. While I have no doubt as to the guilt of the defendants, I have serious misgivings concerning their trials, especially the reliance on clearly non-credible, bullshit-spewing "eyewitnesses" who had no business testifying. A more critical eye and less cheap moralizing would have left us a better book.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a salacious book this is Mick McAlary wrote. I recall the days of Officer Byrnes murder and they were as scary as he writes. However, in hindsight this book missed an opportunity to objectively detail how humanity was lost to fear and the powerful pull of the drug trade. Cops just wanted to survive their tours. Hopeless black young adults wanted the riches that were hyped in the 1980s. Hardworking New Yorkers wanted to walk out their homes and live without looking over their shoulders. Everyone had a choice to make to survive that went contrary to someone else's. Mr. McAlary had an opportunity to write that story instead of the longer version of a tabloid story that this turns out to be. Imagine if you will if he had interviewed people other than justly angered police and street hoods. Yes, there were more than those who knew the whole story but they did not trust telling anyone their side would produce change for them. The times have not changed much. People still take sides...cops are bad, black kids are targeted, people won't help solve crime in their own communities. Did we learn anything when we could have. It did not happen because opportunities were missed in books like this. And the cycle continues. Will we ever learn to get this right?

[Dimas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Came for the background info on Fat Cat, Supreme Team, and Pappy Mason but stayed for the very interesting police reporting. The author, Mike McAlary, was a longtime reporter for the Daily News, and it’s obvious he had great rapport and a healthy respect for the NYPD. The stuff these officers admit and say on the record is wild; outside of private "Blue Lives Matter" Facebook pages or whatever, cops wouldn’t dare talk like this in a public setting now.

Other than that, this is a very flawed book; feels like a rush drop. The narrative cohesion pretty much falls apart by the middle, and there are long stretches where it’s just a quote, as if this was an oral history, and there’s a good amount of grammatical mistakes and misspelling. There is also — despite the subtitle — very little insight into the rise of the crack era or any kind of attempt to talk about it in a nuanced way.

[Robert Pucciarelli]

Anyone who portrays Mr Byrne Eddies father whom I knew from the time I was 6 as a “publicity hound” is not only a liar but a moron. Eddie was my closest friend the day he was murdered his whole family died a little as well his parents especially. His father was NEVER the same nor were I. I think of him everyday. I pulled up to his house that morning not knowing what happened. As I entered the house his father hugged me crying and said I’ll never forget “tough call tough call” through the tears. To hell with McAlary he’s a fraud.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt this was a good book to read in light of the recent violence on police officers throughout the nation. This is the story of the assassination of NYPD officer Edward Byrnes by crack dealers. The book hits on the crack epidemic of the 80s and the violent monsters it produced. It's disturbing to think how many cold blooded killers are walking around ready to kill a stranger for some alleged act of disrespect or to send a message. Some of these dealers resemble Al Qaeda with their tactics. The book covers the dealers and killers and the cops investigation and the courtroom drama. This book reminded me of the great HBO drama "The Wire" how it follows the various players in this tragedy. There are a couple of jabs at President Reagan in this book. Officer Byrnes would probably never believed that people 27 Years after his death still remember him. RIP officer Byrnes.

[Roger Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very imformative book, tells the true story of a NYPD officer murdered in the drug wars of the 1980's.

[Tiffany Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read for New Yorkers on the history of crack in the 80's