William Allee, former New York Police chief of detectives, died Thursday of leukemia linked to ground zero during 9/11 and the Staten Island landfill after the terror attack, according to the New York Daily News.
Allee was the 24th NYPD member to die this year from cancer suspected to be from toxins connected to the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, the newspaper said. He died at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as the NYPD planned a ceremonial tribute to him Thursday.
Allee joined the department in 1963 and was promoted to detective four years later, according to the New York Post. He served as commanding officer of the Seventh Precinct on the Lower East Side, the Midtown North precinct, led the detective operations in Staten Island before becoming chief of detectives, the tabloid noted.
According to Newsday, Allee once told reporters that he credited his father with keeping him away from trouble while growing up in Queens. His father once told him that if he ever got involved with drugs he would quit his job, take him to school by the hand every day and wait outside to bring him home, Allee said, per Newsday.
"If that doesn't work, I will break both your legs and keep you home until whatever devil controls you is gone," Allee told one newspaper about his father's words, Newsday said.
Many NYPD officials and others shared their condolences on social media.
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