Joseph Edward Seabrook

Detective Joseph Seabrook died from illnesses he contracted after inhaling toxic materials as he participated in the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Detective Seabrook had served with the New York City Police Department for 25 years, assigned to the 20th Precinct.

Joseph Edward Seabrook was born in New York City in 1963. At Alfred E. Smith High School he ran track and played basketball, and his basketball skills earned him a scholarship to Queens College. He worked for the city's Department of Traffic before he was appointed to the New York City Police Department on 30 June 1995. He served in the 28th Precinct and the Narcotics Division's South East Queens Initiative, and in October 1999 he was promoted to detective and assigned to Manhattan North Narcotics.

His last command was the 20th Precinct, where he was named Cop of the Month several times. He was well known to the people who lived and worked around the Amsterdam Houses, west of Lincoln Center, where he and his colleagues carried out narcotics operations, including a major drug arrest operation shortly before his death.

Faith was central to his life. He volunteered at Mother Walls A.M.E. Zion Church in the Bronx, where he sang with the youth ensemble later known as The Messengers. From 1986 he was a member of Greater St. Stephen United Church of God in Brooklyn, serving as a trustee, on the board of its community outreach organization in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and as head coach of its basketball league. At the time of his death he belonged to Greater Centennial A.M.E. Zion Church in Mount Vernon, where he was active in the men's ministry and men's choir. He was also a Second Degree Mason and was to become a Master Mason of Progressive Lodge 64 in Mount Vernon in October 2010.

Detective Seabrook was still on active duty when he died of complications of a stroke on 29 May 2010. His condition was found to be related to his rescue and recovery work after the World Trade Center attacks, and his death was declared in the line of duty in 2011. He was predeceased by a brother and was survived by his mother.