NEVER FORGET

Cops remember officer shot dead 3 yrs. ago

THE GUNSHOTS that rang out at the corner of 212th St. and 104th Road in Queens Village are three years in the past, but the pain for the family of a slain police officer has never gone away.

On Friday night, about 100 NYPD cops gathered at the corner to remember 25-year-old Officer Brian Moore.

“It really is unbelievable that it’s three years already,” Moore’s mother, Irene, teared up as she thought of her son.

“I’m still waiting for him to call me. I’m still waiting for that text, I’m still waiting for him to walk through the door and tell me he was on a secret assignment somewhere,” she told the Daily News.

Moore said she tries to recall him in better times.

“Brian had an awesome sense of humor, he was very, very funny,” she said.

“A lot of people told me that the last memory they have of him was cracking a joke and smiling ... So that’s kind of like what I do every day, too.”

The still grieving mom also keeps her son’s memory alive by searching for reminders of him. “I look for signs every day, too. There might just be something blue that’s left in my path, or a feather, or something in the clouds, like a heart. I always have my eyes open looking for a sign of him.”

It was on May 2, 2015, that Moore and his partner, Erik Jansen, were on patrol in an unmarked car when they saw a man they deemed suspicious. As they stopped to question Demetrius Blackwell, the cousin of Giants cornerback Kory Blackwell, he pulled out a gun and blasted Moore in the face, mortally wounding him. Blackwell was convicted of murder in December and sentenced to life in prison.

Moore’s father, Raymond Moore, a retired sergeant, told The News he sometimes visits the corner to remember his son.

“I come back to the location and I can still visualize everything,” he said.

“I just try to piece together what happened, everything that transpired, and it’s tough.”

“When he passed away, a huge part of me died. I don’t think fathers and sons could have had anything closer than we did. He was my buddy, he was my friend. And it still hurts,” the father said.

NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill spoke about the sorrow that remains, and the importance of celebrating Moore’s life.

“It’s important that we’re all here today. Not only that the NYPD remembers, but everybody in the city remembers.”

“He was only 25 years old, and the work that he did really helped to keep the city safe.” O’Neill said of the five-year veteran.

At the end of the ceremony a large wreath of flowers was carried over to a sidewalk, and officers approached one by one, each adding a blue rose to the pile under the wreath.