The head of the New York City Police Department during the 9/11 attacks has died.
Bernard Kerik was 69 years old.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Kerik’s death came after a “private battle with illness” without saying exactly what that illness was, The Associated Press reported.
Patel posted a tribute to Kerik on X.
Today, we mourn the loss of Bernard B. Kerik, a warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known. Bernie passed away tragically on May 29, 2025, after a private battle with illness.
— Kash Patel (@Kash_Patel) May 30, 2025
With over forty years of service in law enforcement…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who also served on the NYPD, said he visited Kerik in the hospital on Thursday. He called Kerik a “great New Yorker and American,” WNBC reported.
The NYPD paid tribute writing on X, “For nearly two decades, Kerik served and protected New Yorkers in the NYPD, including helping rebuild the city in the aftermath of 9/11.”
The NYPD is mourning the passing of former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 30, 2025
For nearly two decades, Kerik served and protected New Yorkers in the NYPD, including helping rebuild the city in the aftermath of 9/11.
We offer our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. pic.twitter.com/DG4EuFVloN
Kerik was an Army veteran who eventually served as a bodyguard for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani during his 1993 mayoral campaign.
In 2000, Giuliani selected him to serve as NYPD commissioner. He was considered a hero during the 9/11 attacks. He was called “America’s Top Cop” because of the work he did during that time.
“But I’d give anything for that day not to have happened. I wish it hadn’t. But it did,” he wrote in his book “From Jailer to Jailed”. “And I happened to be there at the time. I was there, and I did the best I could do under the circumstances. It’s all any of us did.”
President George W. Bush selected Kerik to organize Iraq’s police force in 2003 and in 2004 selected him to be the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the AP reported.
Kerik withdrew his name from consideration after he said there could have been an issue concerning a person whom he employed as a housekeeper and nanny and their immigration status.
In 2005, he founded the Kerik Group, a crisis and risk management consulting firm.
A few years later, he was charged with tax fraud and making false statements, to which he pleaded guilty in 2009. Some of the charges stemmed from apartment renovations by a firm that wanted him to tell New York officials they had no connection to organized crime.
The value of the renovations was more than $250,000, WNBC reported. The false statement charges came from statements he gave the White House during his brief time as the DHS secretary nominee.
The judge overseeing the case said at the time that Kerik committed some of the crimes while he was “the chief law enforcement officer for the biggest and grandest city this nation has.”
Kerik served almost four years behind bars.
President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik in 2020 and he started working with Giuliani again, trying to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss, the AP reported.
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