In 1990, while commanding the NYPDโs 17th Precinct detective squad, Ed Norris investigated the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane by El Sayyid Nosair. A search of Nosairโs apartment turned up two other men (Mahmud Abouhalima and Mohammed Salameh), 47 boxes of documents, photos of New York landmarks, military manuals, and bomb-making materials. Norris concluded it was not a lone gunman homicide but part of a larger conspiracy.
He briefed Chief of Detectives Joseph Borelli the next morning and said they had a criminal conspiracy, not a isolated shooting. Borelli rejected that view, told Norris to โshut upโ and just clear the homicide, and ordered the other men released and the materials turned over to the FBI. Those same men later participated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; the Kahane killing is now widely described as the first al-Qaeda linked murder on U.S. soil.
Norris later testified about the episode before the congressional joint inquiry into 9/11 intelligence failures. He has repeatedly said he was told to drop the conspiracy angle and that the warning was ignored.