Cop Shot

New York City police officer Byrne, age 22, was slain in 1988 while guarding the home of a witness in a drug case in Queens. There were no lack of informants to the murder; the killers themselves, four young crack dealers ordered to carry out the execution by a minor druglord, boasted about their deed. They were captured, tried and found guilty; all received long prison terms. In McAlary's view, these men--products of broken homes, raised on the streets, caught up in the violent crack culture of their neighborhood--were ignorant and stupid. But then, few gods occupy the hard-bitten New York Daily News columnist's personal pantheon. He slams the intentions and abilities of former mayor Edward Koch and ex-police commissioner Benjamin Ward; he also depicts the murdered officer's father, once on the force himself, as a publicity-hungry headline grabber, and--with some notable exceptions--presents the police assigned to the case as a virtual lynch mob. Journalistic writing of a high order, the book tells a grim story with streetwise cynicism and telegraphic urgency. (June)