Heartbreaking news: A New York City police officer who spent over three decades in a vegetative state after being shot in the head during a botched robbery has sadly passed away.
Detective Troy Patterson, who was off duty when he was shot back on Jan. 16, 1990,
was washing his car on a street in Brooklyn when he was approached by three young men who demanded $20, police said. One of the robbers, who was 15 at the time, shot Patterson. Due to his catastrophic injury, he spent the next 33 years in a vegetative state. His family had big hopes that he would eventually pull through from his coma. Sadly, he died Saturday, Detectives Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo said.
Three suspects, two teens, and an adult, were eventually arrested after an intense manhunt. Detectives have reviewed Patterson’s arrests around the time of the shooting to find a lead or a motive as to why someone would shoot the officer. Although one of the suspects convicted in his shooting was released in 2000, Detective Patterson’s cause of death is still being determined. The Brooklyn district attorney says the case is under review.
How Has The Family Been Dealing With The Tragic Loss
Speaking to ABC News 7, his family still feels the pain of losing him.
“He reacted on our voice, even my grandmother’s voice, he knew that we were there,” his son, Troy Patterson, Jr. said. The detective’s son was jusyb5 years old when the shooting happened. “That was tough, you know, 5 years old, a little kid, a baby,” Patterson said. “You know seeing your dad laid up in the hospital, tubes, stomach, nose, you know everywhere, mouth. It was tough but with the family there guiding him and the NYPD, we got through it.”
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NYPD Assistant Chief Judith Harrison said during a vigil for Patterson last year that she was “hoping for a miracle” more than 30 years after the horrific shooting.
Before his passing, the president of the Detectives Endowment Association also visited Detective Patterson several times and said,
“He was confined to a wheelchair and confined to a bed, he was never patrolled from his wheelchair, he was confined for 33 years due to the acts of these individuals,” DEA President Paul Digiacomo said. In 1990, police had described Patterson as a NYPD veteran, who made many drug and gun arrests on the streets of Brooklyn.
“He knew his surroundings. He could spot a criminal a mile away,” one officer said during an Eyewitness News interview around the time of the shooting. It was said that he had taken countless guns off the streets, preventing countless senseless crimes. Unfortunately, he could not prevent the one that took his life years later.
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