NYPD officer dies 33 years after being shot in the head

Troy Patterson, a New York City police officer who had been in a vegetative state since he was shot in a robbery in 1990, died Saturday in a New Jersey rehab center, according to The New York Daily News.

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Patterson, a police officer who was 27 at the time, was off-duty and washing his car when two teenagers and a 20-year-old approached him and demanded $20. Patterson got into a scuffle with the three, and one, a 15-year-old, pulled a gun and shot Patterson in the head.

Patterson, who was 60, never regained consciousness.

Patterson’s son, Troy, said he remembered seeing his dad on life support at Kings County Hospital right after the shooting. He was 5 years old when his father was shot.

“I remember touching his hand,” his son said in an interview a few years ago. “I don’t remember saying anything, but I remember touching his hand.”

Patterson joined the NYPD in 1983 and was working out of the 60th precinct in Coney Island when he was shot.

‘’He was a good cop,’’ Darryl Hinkson, his former partner and now a private security guard, said at the time. ‘’To me, the best.”

Police arrested the three involved in the robbery, Tracy Clark who was 15, Vincent Robbins who was, 20, and Darren Crawford who was 17.

All three were convicted of various charges related to the shooting and sent to prison, and have since been released.

The Detectives Endowment Association released the news of his death, saying Detective Patterson and his legacy of service will never be forgotten.