Former New York Police Department commissioner Bernard Kerik died on Thursday. He was 69 years old.

Kerik was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1955. His family later moved to Paterson, New Jersey, and he grew up in the city. He attended Eastside High School, which gained recognition from the 1989 film Lean on Me. Kerik dropped out of school in 1972 and later joined the U.S. Army.

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After serving abroad, Kerik joined the NYPD in 1986 and was eventually promoted to run New York City’s Department of Corrections in 1998, according to the Associated Press. He held the position until former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani appointed him the city’s new police commissioner in 2000. Kerik was the chief of police for New York City during the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001. Kerik remained in the position until the end of that year when Giuliani’s term ended.

“We’ve been together since the beginning,” Giuliani said on his talk show on Thursday after learning of Kerik’s death. “He’s like my brother. I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man.”

“He was at my side within 20 minutes of the attack and never left,” Giuliani added.

In 2007, he was indicted by a grand jury on tax fraud charges and making false statements about his income, according to multiple reports. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to multiple felony tax charges and was sentenced to four years in prison and three years’ probation, which required supervised release. 

On February 18, 2020, President Donald Trump pardoned Kerik for his convictions.