A retired FBI agent who worked in counter-terrorism is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the 31st anniversary memorial service to remember the two Nyack police officers and the Brinks guard killed in the Oct. 20, 1981, Brinks armored truck robbery at the Nanuet Mall.
The service is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20, at the memorial garden on Mountainview Avenue in Central Nyack, just off Route 59, that marks the location at the Exit 11 entrance ramp to the New York State Thruway where Police Officer Waverly Brown and Sgt. Edward O'Grady were killed.
The annual service draws hundreds of police and law enforcement officials from Rockland County and beyond, as well as survivors from the robbery and family members of those killed that day. In Nanuet, Brinks guard Peter Paige was killed in the hold up, with O'Grady and Brown killed as they manned a roadblock to stop a getaway truck used in the robbery.
Scheduled to be the 2012 guest speaker is Kenneth Maxwell, who is retired from the FBI's New York office, where he worked in the counter-terrorism devision. Maxwell is vice president for corporate security at JetBlue Airlines.
In addition to this annual service, the victims of the robbery are remembered each year through a scholarship program named in honor of O'Grady and Brown.
The memorial service closes Moutainview Avenue at Route 59 and the Exit 11 entrance of the Thruway to traffic for at least an hour. Traffic on Route 59 in the Central Nyack and Nyack areas is also affected by the ceremony.
At the time of the Brinks robbery, the Village of Nyack had its own, full-time police department. Since then, the village decided it could no longer afford its own police force and the portion of Nyack that is in Orangetown is now protected by the Orangetown Police Department with the small portion of the village that is in the Town of Clarkstown protected by the Clarkstown Police Department.
It is good to be reminded of this historic event and the heroes they honor. Thanks Patch