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According to law-enforcement authorities, a hero NYPD cop who was shot over $20 while washing his car in Brooklyn in 1990 has died after spending more than three decades in a coma.
Officer Troy Patterson was just 27 years old, recently engaged, and off-duty when he was ambushed outside PS 3 in Bedford-Stuyvesant by three armed criminals hunting for a few dollars.
During the bungled heist, the six-year department veteran, who had previously received seven commendations for his efforts, was shot in the head with a.38-caliber revolver.
The terrified suspects left the site of the shooting, leaving Patterson’s wallet behind.
The hero officer, who was washing his car at a fire hydrant three blocks from his home when he was shot, died Saturday night, according to reports.
In 2016, Patterson was promoted to detective.
Vincent Robbins, Tracey Clark, and Darien Crawford, the three suspects in the unprovoked shooting, were later apprehended.
Robbins, now 53, was convicted of assault and attempted robbery and sentenced to five to 15 years in jail. According to state records, he was freed in 2000.
Clark, the suspected shooter in the incident, was also tried in the case. The outcome of the case is not yet known, nor are any information about Crawford’s accusations.
According to a representative for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, the matter is currently being reviewed.
Although Patterson never regained consciousness, New York’s Finest never forgot the Brooklyn cop.
“Detective Troy Patterson was a hero of New York City, who inspired hundreds of fellow Detectives to continue his courageous, important crime-fighting work,” said Paul DiGiacomo, head of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, in a statement Sunday.
“Troy’s legacy will forever be one of service and sacrifice. The DEA will ensure he and his family are never forgotten.”
NYPD Assistant Chief Judith Harrison had said during a vigil for Patterson in January 2022, “We come here every year to honor his life, to celebrate his life to let his family and to let him know we will not forget.
“The Police department has a saying, ‘We will not forget,’ ” Harrison said. “But when we gather here what we do is we put action behind those words. So we’re here to celebrate Troy, we’re here hoping for a miracle more than 30 years later.
“We will never forget.”