Day of Remembrance for Nicholas Heyward, Jr.

icholas Heyward, Jr. was 13 years old in 1994 when a housing police officer shot him to death while Nicholas was playing cops and robbers in a stairwell in Brooklyn's Gowanus Houses. The officer who killed him never faced any charges and was soon exonerated by the District Attorney.

Nonetheless, Nicholas Heyward, Sr. has never given up the effort to obtain justice for his son, and every year a Day of Remembrance is held to honor him. This year it will be on Saturday, August 23^rd, in the Nicholas Naquan Heyward, Jr. Park on Wyckoff Street between Hoyt and Bond Streets in Brooklyn.

Starting at approximately 11:00 a.m., there will be games, entertainment and refreshments throughout the day. Many speakers will deliver positive messages to the youth as they tell of their remembrances of Nicholas Heyward Jr. and show their love for his family and the entire community. Nicholas' younger brother, Quentin, who was six years old at the time of the shooting, will be one of the speakers. There will be a poetry reading from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

It is right that a memoriam be held each year, for the loss of Nicholas Heyward, Jr. was a tragedy not only for his family, but for the entire community. Nicholas, the first of two children born to Nicholas, Sr. and Angela Heyward, attended Public School 20 where he was a B+ student. He had gone on to Nathan Hale Middle School where he was on the honor roll. By the age of twelve he'd already known that he wanted to become a doctor or play professional basketball. Given his scholastic and athletic abilities, both of these were real possibilities. Nicholas spent much time perfecting his basketball skills and was very proud of having made his school's basketball team.

Then came that fateful day when he was using a toy gun in a game of cops and robbers in the stairwell with two friends. The toy rifle Nicholas was playing with had a bright orange tip and looked nothing like a real gun. According to his two playmates, when Nicholas saw the police officer he dropped his toy gun and called out, "We're only playing; we're only playing!" but the officer shot him in mid-sentence.

After hearing that her son had been shot, Angela Heyward ran up 14 flights of stairs to be with him and to comfort him, but the police at the scene did not allow her to come near him. She was even denied the right to ride to the hospital in the ambulance with her son. Nicholas died eight hours later after being taken not to the nearest hospital in Brooklyn, but to Saint Vincent’s in Manhattan.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes assigned rookie investigator Joseph Alexis to head up the investigation and labeled the shooting a "tragic accident" after a very poor investigation in which they never even questioned the first two witnesses at the scene. Hynes held a press conference 90 days after the shooting to announce that the case was closed on the grounds that Officer Brian George had responded to a 911 call of gunshots being fired from the rooftop and had feared for his life when he heard a clicking sound in the dimly lit stairwell. Hynes said Officer George thought this sound was a gun misfiring, so he fired into the darkness, striking young Nicholas in the abdomen. Hynes stated that things happened in a split-second and closed the case without ever presenting it to a grand jury.

This was all despite the fact that Officer George himself made sworn statements in a deposition that contradicted Hynes' version of events. George stated, for instance, that he was on routine patrol, not responding to a 911 call, and his description of what happened made it clear that his pulling the trigger had not been a "split-second decision."

Nicholas Heyward Sr. says, "My struggle for justice continues because we continue to see authorities exonerate brutal, murdering cops no matter how clear the evidence of their crimes. We have had to bury too many of our children while the cops who murdered them walk free."

A foundation has been created in memory of Nicholas Jr. titled the Nicholas Naquan Heyward Jr. Foundation. Out of the foundation, scholarships are given out each year, basketball tournaments are held every summer, and the foundation conducts toy gun drives where they exchange books or children's videos for toy guns. The foundation has also been a force in removing toy guns from store shelves and changing laws governing the sale and distribution of these toy guns.

Contributions can be made to: Nicholas Naquan Heyward Jr. Foundation, Inc., 413 Baltic Street, Suite 1A, Brooklyn, NY 11217. For more information about the Day of Remembrance or the foundation, call (718) 855-3861.