Convicted cop killer Herman Bell, 70, who fatally shot two NYPD officers in 1971, was released on parole Friday after efforts to keep him in prison failed.

State prison officials say they’re abiding by an appellate judge’s decision Wednesday that denied a police union’s request for a temporary restraining order to keep 70-year-old Herman Bell behind bars, CBS NY reports.

 “I don’t want a murderer in my damn neighborhood nor do you,” Patrolman’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said at a news conference earlier Friday. “This is not politics by any means. This is ignorance by all means.” 

In 1971, Officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini had responded to what they thought was a real 911 call. Instead, they walked into an ambush at a Harlem housing complex.

Authorities say both officers were shot multiple times, with Piagentini hit by more than 20 bullets. Bell and two other members of the Black Liberation Army were convicted of the murders.

Bell also pleaded guilty to killing a police sergeant in California.