While commander of the 17th Detective Squad, Norris led the investigation into the murder of Meir Kahane, an American-Israeli rabbi and ultranationalist writer and political figure. At the time, the NYPD officially classified the murder as the act of a lone gunman, over the protests of Norris who warned of a bigger conspiracy. After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, it was later revealed that Kahane was the first al-Qaeda murder inside the United States, as well as the first incident leading up to 9/11.