Taken too soon: Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre honoured 30 years on

SLAIN police officers Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre have posthumously been awarded valour medals three decades after they were killed.

SLAIN police officers Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre have posthumously been awarded valour medals three decades after they were killed in the line of duty.

Family, friends and police officers gathered at Prahran police station this morning to commemorate 30 years since the two young constables, then aged 22 and 20, were murdered.

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The execution-style murder on October 12, 1988, shocked the state and followed a shooting a day earlier where a known criminal was shot dead while trying to evade police.

Hours later Constables Tynan and Eyre, who were not involved in the earlier shooting, were lured by a report of an abandoned car in Walsh St, South Yarra, where they were ambushed and fatally shot.

Four men charged with their murder were later acquitted.

Police officers Damian Eyre and Steven Tynan, murdered in Walsh St, South Yarra, October 12, 1988.

Superintendent Philip Green told those gathered at last week’s memorial the two innocent men were cut down in the prime of their lives and their loss would always be remembered.

“I still react to their youth, their ID photos frozen in time,” Supt Green said.

And Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, who took a break from a statewide charity walk raising money for mental health, commended both the Tynan and Eyre families for their incredible “dignity”.

“You’ve dealt with loss, you’ve dealt with the greatest of heart breaks I can’t even imagine,” Mr Ashton said.

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