Bernard Kerik, New York police chief through 9/11, dead at 69
Bernard Kerik led the NYPD before going to prison and a getting a pardon by Donald Trump
Bernard “Bernie” Kerik, who rose to US national prominence after leading the New York Police Department through the September 11 terror attacks, died Thursday. He was 69.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced Kerik’s death on X, saying he passed away “after a private battle with illness”.
Lauding Kerik, Patel called him “a warrior, a patriot and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known”.
Kerik was the tough-talking head of the New York police when Osama bin Laden’s hijackers struck the World Trade Centre towers with commercial passenger jets in September 2001.
In the traumatic days and weeks after the attack, Kerik, with his squat, muscular build, balding head and black moustache, became a familiar face to Americans across the country, as he helped then-mayor Rudy Giuliani guide New York through the crisis.