Roll of Honor
Yiu Tak "Louis" Tao
Incident
Location: New York Incident Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 Weapon: Aircraft; Passenger jet Offender: 19 suicide attackers
Supervisory Police Officer Louis Tao died as the result of cancer that he developed following his assignment to the search and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site following the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks.
Officer Tao had served with the United States Department of Justice - Federal Bureau of Investigation Police for over 25 years.
September 11, 2001 - The Years After
Supervisory Police Officer Yiu Tak "Louis" Tao was assigned to the search and recovery at the World Trade Center site after September 11, 2001. He was 36 years old that fall.
He died on May 17, 2022 - 20 years and 8 months later - of an illness contracted there. He was 56.
He is one of 599 officers honored here.
The most recent of these deaths was October 24, 2025.
Officers who worked the search, rescue, and recovery at the World Trade Center site breathed contaminated air for weeks and months afterward. Many developed cancers and respiratory disease, and they have gone on dying of it ever since.
Seventy-two officers were killed on the morning itself. Hundreds more have died in the years that followed. They are honored here together, because the same attack killed them all. With some it simply took longer.
Survivors
He is survived by his wife, two sisters, stepdaughter, stepmother, niece, and nephew.
In Our Keeping
- Permanent identifier
BO-US-FED-05EF5A83- Stewardship
- Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
- Added to badge.nw
- August 2, 2026
- Last updated
- August 2, 2026
Honored here by 1 sentinel - 1 tribute.
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Tributes
You walked into it and it took years to finish the job.
Supervisory Police Officer Tao gave the United States Department of Justice 25 years.
Thank you for your service. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Supervisory Police Officer Tao.
— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993
Agency
Service Record
Incident Details
Supervisory Police Officer Yiu Tak "Louis" Tao is one of 1 officers lost to illness connected to their service across the full record of this memorial — 0% of all 97,756 officers honored here.
In DC, 137 of 1,419 officers were lost to illness connected to their service — 9.7% of this state's fallen. That is 9.7 percentage points above the national rate of 0%.
National Cause Distribution
How Illness compares to all causes of officer death in the memorial record. Yiu Tak "Louis" Tao's cause is highlighted.
How Yiu Tak "Louis" Tao Compares
When Illness Deaths Occur
Monthly distribution of Illness deaths across the full memorial record. Yiu Tak "Louis" Tao is highlighted in May.
Incident Location
Others Who Wore This Badge
0 officers from United States Department of Justice - Federal Bureau of Investigation Police are honored on badge.nw.