Troy Patterson, a heroic police officer who spent more than half his life in a vegetative state after being shot in a botched robbery in Brooklyn, has passed away at a New Jersey rehabilitation center.
The incident occurred on January 16, 1990, when Patterson, who was off-duty at the time, was washing his car by a fire hydrant on Jefferson Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Three local men approached him and demanded $20. A scuffle broke out which saw one of those involved, a 15-year-old teen, shooting Patterson in the head with a gun.
Patterson, who was just 27 years old at the time, never regained consciousness.
Despite being in a vegetative state, Patterson’s friends and family who visited him believed that the injured cop knew they were there.
Troy Patterson, 60, a heroic police officer who spent more than half his life in a vegetative state after being shot in a botched robbery in 1990 in Brooklyn, has passed away at a New Jersey rehabilitation center
His son, also named Troy, who was five years old at the time of the shooting, recalled in an interview with the Daily News several years ago that his father would become quiet and listen when they visited.
‘He gets quiet, he listens,’ his son said. ‘Sometimes, he hears my voice, he makes a moan, a noise. I can’t make out what he’s saying, but he definitely knows our presence,’ he said.
He recalled seeing his father on life support machines following the shooting, ‘lying in the bed, hooked up to all sorts of machines, not responding to anyone’s voice.’
‘I remember touching his hand. I don’t remember saying anything, but I remember touching his hand,’ he recounted.
At times, Patterson’s family and colleagues believed that they could see glimpses of him still trying to come through.
Patterson’s mother, Katherine Patterson, cared for him every day until she was debilitated by multiple sclerosis.
She remained convinced her son could hear her even if he could not respond.
Patterson was off-duty and washing his car in Bedford-Stuyvesant when three local men approached him and demanded $20 During a scuffle, a 15-year-old, shot Patterson in the head and he never regained consciousness – but family members cared for him ever since
She spoke to him every day even after he was transferred to the Hartwyck rehabilitation center in New Jersey.
After Katherine died, his aunt Doris Patterson-Brown took over his care, and then his aunt May.
The younger Troy now has a daughter of his own, Tramya.
‘I’m trying to fill the steps my dad couldn’t walk in,’ he said during a 2010 interview. ‘My dad was the greatest.’
Fellow NYPD officers and Patterson’s family regularly marked the anniversary of the shooting with candlelight vigils at the scene of the shooting.
Patterson joined the NYPD in 1983 and was working out of the 60th precinct in Coney Island when he was shot.
Following the shooting, police arrested three young men, Tracy Clark, 15, Vincent Robbins, 20, and Darren Crawford, 17, who attacked the officer and demanded the $20 to join a local basketball league.
Clark, who was then a student at Automotive High School in Brooklyn, was accused of being the gunman who wielded a .38-caliber revolver but all three were convicted of various charges related to the shooting and sent to prison. The trio have since been released.
Clark, who is believed to have since moved to South Carolina, where records show he has a criminal record for various drug offenses, served a 15-year prison sentence for selling drugs.
News of Patterson’s death came as a surprise to his mother, Juanita Clark, who is blind and thought he had already passed away.
Patterson, who was promoted to detective following the shooting, was remembered by his former partner Darryl Hinkson as a ‘good cop’ and ‘the best.’