Sandra Y. Adrian

Detective Sandra Adrian died of cancer that she contracted after inhaling toxic chemicals and materials while working hundreds of hours at the Fresh Kills landfill, the site where the debris of the World Trade Center were taken and sorted following terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.

Detective Adrian has served with the New York City Police Department for 19 years and was assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Sandra Y. Adrian was appointed to the New York City Housing Police on 28 July 1987 and was promoted to detective in the Housing Police on 30 April 1995. When the Housing Police merged with the New York City Police Department in May 1995, she continued her career there, and she was promoted to detective second grade on 28 June 2002. She served in the Internal Affairs Bureau, which was her command at the time of her death, and she was recognized six times for excellent and meritorious police duty. Colleagues remembered her as pleasant, dedicated, mild-mannered and loyal to the department.

Detective Adrian died on 11 January 2006, in her 19th year with the department, of brain cancer caused by her work in the World Trade Center rescue and recovery effort, especially at the Fresh Kills Landfill. She was 45 years old. She was the first female detective whose death was declared in the line of duty. That declaration was made in 2009, when her name was unveiled on the NYPD Memorial Wall.

She was survived by her brother and her sister. Detective Adrian is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.