The "cop killer memorial" that disgusted the nation has been torn down.

The candles lit to memorialize the accused killer of Officer Melvin Santiago, the empty bottles of liquor placed among them, the balloons, the t-shirts inscribed with messages of love to Santiago's accused killer – all gone.

Word on the street is: police officers came by last night and tore it down.

Not that anyone wanted to say that on the record. Asked for names, residents shook their heads. They're afraid officers will use that information against them, they said.

The shrine appeared at some point Sunday at Orient Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive, on the side of a red brick building that houses a mini-mart, a bar and residential housing. Lawrence Campbell, who cops say ambushed police early that morning at the Walgreens store at Kennedy Boulevard and Communipaw Avenue, killing Santiago before cops shot him dead, lived in this area.

News of the shrine caused a furor yesterday when The Jersey Journal first reported it, with city officials, police officers and neighbors all aghast that so many would pay tribute to man accused of gunning down a rookie cop. Mayor Steve Fulop called the memorial "disgusting."

Today, in a statement released by his spokeswoman, Fulop took credit for getting rid of the memorial.

"I had it taken down last night," Fulop said. "I am not going to let a few residents pretend like they express the views of a great city like Jersey City."

Officer Carmine Disbrow and Sgt. Robert Kearns, who run the city's two police unions, call removing the shrine a "common sense" move.

"A cold blooded murdering coward made a decision as to how he wanted to be remembered posthumously, but unfortunately Patrolman Santiago did not get to make such a choice," the two men said, in a statement sent by their PR firm. "The choices that Patrolman Santiago made, to take care of his family, serve his community and do his bit to make Jersey City a better place were taken from him."

But residents who live near the shrine defended it today.

"There's two lives lost," said one man inside Columbia Tavern this morning.

Another said it "bothered" him that the shrine was removed.

"Even though it was the wrong thing to do, there were two lives lost," he said.

City workers also removed the nearby memorial for Lavon King, who was fatally shot by police on June 24.