NYPD, law enforcement agencies hold 9/11 memorial procession
LOWER MANHATTAN (WABC) -- Sunday marks the 15th anniversary of the September 11th attacks terror attack, and tributes and remembrances are already underway in New York City and around the nation.
Members of the NYPD and a number of law enforcement agencies from across the country marched through Lower Manhattan Friday to honor the 9/11 victims, gathering to participate in the solemn procession.
The solemn sound of drums and bagpipes filled the canyons of Lower Manhattan Friday, a hallowed procession of honor to remember the men and women who answered the call to duty and gave all there was to give on that awful day.
It began on Broadway and Liberty and proceeded through the streets around the footprint of ground zero, with hundreds of officers and thousands of people lining the streets.
"It just brings it all back," Boston police officer Jim Berry said. "It's a memorialization of that day and what we lost, not only as a profession, but as a country. We lost a lot of good people in the profession of law enforcement, fire, EMS. There were a lot of innocent civilians that were killed that day just going to work."
Watch an extended the version of the video here:
The 9/11 terrorist attacks caused more law enforcement line of duty of deaths than any other single incident in American history, as 71 officers were killed when the two World Trade Center buildings collapsed in New York City. Dozens of others died due to disease contracted in the grim recovery effort that took so many months.
Dozens more have died since then from illnesses contracted while working in the hazardous conditions immediately following the attacks.
The Emerald Society Pipes and Drums Band led the memorial procession, consisting of 17 pipe bands, two marching bands and 27 historical police cars from Zuccotti Park to the NYPD memorial.
Streets in the area were closed for the event, which ended with a wreath-laying ceremony and the reading of the names of all the officers who died in service to their city.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York City, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon during terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaida, a Muslim militant group founded by Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan during a May 2011 raid authorized by Obama.
