The DEA Honor Roll
Official Line of Duty Deaths
Ivan G. Lorenzo
Rank: Detective
Shield Number: 1694
Command: Brooklyn North Narcotics
Date of Death: 05/05/1971
Cause of Death: Shot while off duty
Det. Ivan G. Lorenzo was appointed to the force on August 1, 1966.
On May 5, 1971, after attending a birthday party and a reunion of a softball team called The Lions, Det. Lorenzo and six friends stopped across the street from the Moonlight Bar & Grill in The Bronx. While Det. Lorenzo waited in his automobile, a few of his friends who rode in a different car entered the bar for a drink. It was shortly before 2:00 a.m.
A friend of Det. Lorenzo’s wanted to use a rest room, so, along with Lorenzo, she went into a different establishment — the Sun Bright Bar — right where the Detective’s car was parked. Inside the bar, the friend mistakenly went into the kitchen of the establishment instead of the rest room, and someone snapped at her about her mistake. Lorenzo waited at the bar, and when his friend was ready, the two went back outside to the car. Det. Lorenzo went back into the bar with two other male friends, neither of whom was a Police Officer.
Lorenzo asked to speak with the man who snapped at his friend, but the man, without warning, pulled a firearm and shot Lorenzo point blank in the chest. Det. Lorenzo had attempted to pull his gun, but was too badly injured to get off any shots. The killer pointed his weapon at Lorenzo’s friends and ordered them to the back of the bar while he escaped with the Detective’s off-duty revolver.
When NYPD Detectives investigated the situation, they discovered 14 bricks of heroin in the bar’s kitchen, which they surmised was probably what spooked the perpetrator and caused him to open fire, not realizing that Det. Lorenzo was off-duty and not engaged in any undercover work at the time he was killed.
Det. Lorenzo was 29 years old and assigned to Brooklyn North Narcotics. The perpetrator and heroin dealer, Harry Richardson, was eventually caught and indicted. Det. Lorenzo was survived by his widow and their two sons. In June of 1972, a plaque in his honor was installed in the 94 Precinct.
Read the New York Times article, “The New York Ten,” about the year’s NYPD line of duty deaths, published December 12, 1971.
The New York Ten NY Times 12-12-1971