During 33 Years in a Coma, a NYPD Detective Dies: An NYPD cop who was wounded during a heist in 1990 and remained in a state of unconsciousness for over thirty years has passed away.
The Detectives’ Endowment Association announced Detective Troy Patterson’s passing in a tweet on Sunday. They hailed him as a “hero of New York City” whose efforts “inspired hundreds of fellow Investigators to carry on his brave, vital crime-fighting work.”
According to the AP, Patterson entered a “vegetative state” on January 16, the year 1990, after having been shot in his skull by three individuals who approached him while he was cleaning his car and asked for twenty dollars.
ABC7 reports that shooter Tracy Clark, then 15 years old, was in on the ambush with accomplices Darren Crawford, 17, and Vincent Robbins, 20, after the three of them were unable to raise the funds necessary to participate in a regional basketball tournament.
Patterson, who was 27 at the time of the shooting, never regained consciousness, while the other three “served time on different convictions and have since been released,” according to NBC New York.
His then-5-year-old son, Troy Patterson, Jr., told ABC7 that despite his father’s inability to speak, he occasionally grinned, giggled, or laughed in response to sounds made by his family.
To paraphrase, “That was tough, you understand, I was 5 years old, a young kid, a baby,” he remarked. You’ve seen your dad in the hospital, and you know what it’s like to see tubes coming out of his nose and mouth and into his stomach. The younger Patterson said that “it was tough, but we got past it with the help of his loved ones and the NYPD.”
On Monday, the NYPD assembled in front of the funeral home where Patterson would be taken so that he might be transferred respectfully.
We wish to express our sincere condolences to Detective Troy Patterson’s loved ones. On April 29, 1983, he was shot and he never recovered from his injuries. The New York Police Department tweeted, “#FidelisAdMortem,” paying tribute to an officer who had died while serving the community.
The New York City Police Department does not forget, whether an incident occurred three months ago or thirty years ago. This is a pledge made to each and every student that enrols in our institution.
Following the tragedy, New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell tweeted, “We swear to always stand by loved ones and honour the achievements of Det. Troy Patterson.”
