NYPD officer dies 33 years after he was shot in a robbery
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer who spent more than three decades in a vegetative state after being shot in the head during a botched robbery has died. Police officials Detective Troy Patterson died Saturday. Patterson was off duty when he was shot on Jan. 16, 1990. Police say he was washing his car on a street in Brooklyn when he was approached by three young men who demanded $20. One of the robbers shot Patterson. Patterson never regained consciousness and spent the next 33 years in a vegetative state. The three would-be robbers all served prison time for charges related to the shooting and have been released.