NYPD BOMB SQUAD K9

CRUSADER

Crusader is named for Patrolman Stephen Gilroy, NYPD Emergency Service Unit Squad 8.

He was shot and killed in the line of duty on January 19, 1973.
Read the story HERE

Stephen Gilroy was born in 1944 and grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. He was the youngest of five kids with two brothers and two sisters. His father was a fireman and his brothers, cops. His brothers Hugh and Bryan coached and played for the local Pop Warner football team, The Crusaders. He met his wife at Paprin’s in Woodside, Queens, NY.

Pat was at the bar with her friend Fran, when Steve walked in with three guys and sat between the two girls. They started talking and the rest, as they say, is history.

When the Crusaders would play, people would come out to see Steve play because, ‘ let’s say, he was highly competitive.’ Pat relates one story where In one game, “Steve was knocked unconscious with a concussion and when he woke up the first words he spoke were, ‘what’s the score’”. His mother would not watch her sons play saying “she didn’t want to see them hurting her boys”. There was also a peewee team in Greenpoint and Steve would help coach the little guys whenever he had free time. At his wake the peewee’s came to pay their respects. He was very community oriented, always stopping to chat with an elder on the stoop or to yell hello to a neighbor hanging out a window. He was well loved throughout the neighborhood.

When Pat was told that a NYPD bomb sniffing dog was being trained in her husbands honor, she was asked what she would like to have the dog named. The protocol is to give a K9 a proper name for a fallen officer, in this case possibly Steve or Gilroy. But true to Pat’s personality she went against said protocol and “requested” the dog be named Crusader, after Stephen’s beloved football team. You can’t say no to Pat Gilroy, and in September of 2024 Crusader graduated K9 school and hit the streets of New York. 

Below are a few clipping of Stephen’s career with the Crusaders, and you can follow K9 Crusader’s career on Istagram HERE.

God speed Crusader as you watch over New York City as your namesake Stephen watches over us.

K9 Crusader with his partner Chris

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