Relatives of NYPD Detective Troy Patterson turned out at the corner of Jefferson and Franklin Aves. in Brooklyn Saturday as it was renamed in the fallen cop’s honor.
Patterson died in April 2023 following more than three decades in a catatonic state from a head wound he sustained when he was shot by a teenager during a botched robbery.
Mayor Adams was among those witnessing the street renaming with members of the NYPD’s Detective Endowment Association.
“For more than 30 years, my friend Det. Troy D. Patterson was in a coma after being shot off duty,” Adams said in a post on X. “The heartbreak never went away, but his memory will now live on permanently.”
Patterson was off-duty and washing his car near the street corner on Jan. 16, 1990, when three local youths approached him and demanded $20. In a scuffle, one of them — a 15-year-old — allegedly pulled a gun and shot Patterson in the head.
“He was my hero,” his son Troy Patterson Jr. told the Daily News following the detective’s funeral last year. “I just don’t want him to be forgotten. He’s my daughter’s hero, too.”
The officer was just 27 at the time. After the shooting, he fell into a vegetative state, a limbo from which he never emerged, though he had some awareness of his family and caretakers. It actually was not a coma, his son explained.
“He was in a catatonic state,” he said. “He recognized his mother and other family members. He recognized his nurses. He responded to his son.”
Patterson was promoted to detective following the shooting.
A day before the street sign ceremony, the NYPD held a plaque dedication for Probationary Police Officer Edgar Ordonez, who died just days before he was expected to graduate from the Police Academy on July 10.
Ordonez was at the NYPD shooting range in the Bronx when he collapsed and died following a medical episode.
“The NYPD will #NeverForget Edgar’s drive to protect this city,” Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon wrote on X.
