Three deadly weapons struck down their victims in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. Two were hijacked jets. The third was a .40-caliber pistol on a dark corner of Brooklyn, with just 18 minutes remaining in that day.

To be the last man killed on Sept. 11 is to be hopelessly anonymous, quietly mourned by a few while, year after year, the rest of the city looks toward Lower Manhattan. No one reads his name into a microphone at a ceremony. No memorial marks the sidewalk where he fell with a bullet in his lung.

The case of the last man killed that day remains unsolved. Had he been shot a day before, the police might have arrested someone, but the sad truth is that the police response to the 911 call at 11:42 that night was diminished by the need for officers at key city sites and at the place fast becoming known as ground zero.

“He wasn’t afforded the initial experts in processing the homicide scene,” said Detective Michael Prate, on whose desk the cold-case file rests. “It was old school. If it wasn’t 9/11, you would have had eight or nine detectives out here canvassing the scene. That night, you might have had two or three.”