Luis Gustavo Alvarez

Detective Luis Alvarez 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.

Detective Alvarez was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and had served with the NYPD for 20 years.

Luis G. Alvarez, a former United States Marine, joined the New York City Police Department on 15 October 1990. He was promoted to detective on 30 March 1995, to second grade on 29 June 2000 and to first grade on 27 September 2002. He was a member of the Bomb Squad, which played a central part in the rescue and recovery after the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.

Detective Alvarez developed cancers and other illnesses from that work and retired because of them on 15 October 2010. He lived with cancer for many years. In the last months of his life he testified before the United States Congress, urging renewal of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. He died on 29 June 2019, and his death was ruled in the line of duty. The law that then extended and fully funded the original act was named the Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer, and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act.

He was survived by his wife, his children and other family members. In his honor, a street was renamed at 50th Avenue and Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, a memorial park was dedicated on Terrell Avenue in Oceanside, New York, and an NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau K-9 was named after him.