New York ? Outraged relatives of World Trade Center victims heckled former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Wednesday as their hopes that he would be grilled by the 9-11 commission faded in the face of gentle questioning and effusive praise from panel members.

“My son was murdered because of your incompetence!” shouted Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died in the trade center. Seated three rows behind Giuliani, she jabbed her finger at the former mayor and waved a sign that read “Fiction” as he gave the city’s emergency response a glowing review.

Giuliani finished his testimony and abruptly left the auditorium minutes later, upsetting family members who said they received few answers. Monica Gabrielle, who lost her husband, Richard, called it a “lost opportunity.”

“This was not a time for Rudy Giuliani to talk about all the great things he did on 9-11,” she said. “He can save that for his talking tours. He should have told us what went wrong and what we should do now.”

The acrimonious hearing brought together the mayor, who became a symbol of heroism for his steady response to the attack, and the activist relatives who have become a voice of dissent over his administration’s emergency planning and response.

Their complaints have been supported by a growing mass of critical findings on gaps in command, control and communications among New York’s agencies in charge of emergency response.

The anger directed at Giuliani came on the second and final day of hearings in New York by the Sept. 11 commission, created by Congress last year to investigate the attacks and advise the country on ways to avoid future attacks. The hearings resume June 8-9 in Washington, and the final report is due July 26.

The commission released two reports that mark the most comprehensive probe to date of New York’s response on Sept 11. The findings detailed a list of failings including poor communication, gulfs in cooperation between police and firefighters and grave deficiencies in the city’s 911 emergency telephone network.

Demonstrator Christopher Brodeur interrupts the 9-11 commission hearings and the testimony of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Others attending Wednesday's hearing in New York also complained that Giuliani was treated too softly by panel members charged with getting at the root of government problems revealed by the terrorist attacks.

The report led to an aggressive interrogation of Giuliani’s top fire, police and emergency management officials Tuesday, with Republican appointee John F. Lehman, a former Navy secretary under President Reagan, calling the failings “a scandal” and “not worthy of the Boy Scouts.”

Ex-fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen later called Lehman’s comments “outrageous” and “despicable.”

The harsh questioning of Giuliani’s former team was a sharp contrast to the universal praise that commission members heaped on the former mayor Wednesday. His positive assessment of such hotly debated topics as the 911 phone system and gaps in fire and police communications went virtually unchallenged.

Giuliani began his testimony Wednesday with a call to focus on the nation’s true enemies and not criticize each other.

“Our enemy is not each other but the terrorists who attacked us, murdered our loved ones and continue to offer a threat to our security, safety and survival,” Giuliani said to applause.