NEW YORK (AP) — John Keenan, the police official who led New York City’s manhunt for the “Son of Sam” killer and eventually took a case-solving confession from David Berkowitz, has died.

His death Thursday, at age 99, was announced by the police department and Keenan’s family.

Keenan was the New York Police Department’s Chief of Detectives during the killing spree, which terrified the city in 1976 and 1977 as an unknown gunman stalked his victims with a .44 caliber handgun, killing six and wounding seven others.

When a parking ticket, issued to a car seen parked near the scene of one slaying, finally led detectives on Aug. 10, 1977, to the Yonkers home of Berkowitz, a 24-year-old postal worker, Keenan was there to confront him. It was a climactic scene Keenan later recounted many times for journalists.

“I know you. You’re detective — Chief Keenan,” said Berkowitz, who had publicly taunted the police with notes during the hunt.

“Who are you?” Keenan asked.

“I am the Son of Sam,” Berkowitz replied.

Keenan’s work on the case came near the end of a 37-year career with the police department. He announced his retirement five months later when a new commissioner took office and wanted to appoint his own top deputies.

During World War II, Keenan was a lieutenant in the Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps. He landed on Utah Beach in the D-Day Invasion and participated in the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Paris. Author J.D. Salinger, who was writing “Catcher in the Rye” between battles, was in Keenan’s infantry division and became a lifelong friend.

After leaving the NYPD, Keenan became vice president for operations at the New York Racing Association, the organization that operates the Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga thoroughbred horse tracks.

Keenan lived in Rockville Centre, on Long Island. He and his wife, Sara, were married for 73 years. Two of their three daughters preceded him in death.

“Truly saddened to learn that former Chief of Detectives John Keenan has passed,” the current chief of detectives, Dermot Shea, tweeted Friday. “A life of epic heroism, he stormed Normandy on D-Day, fought in the Battle of the Bulge & later, as the NYPD Chief of D’s, took the confession from the Son of Sam. We salute you, sir. #FidelisAdMortem.”