Brooklyn Cop Cleared for Shooting, Killing 13-Year-Old Boy in 1994

BOERUM HILL, BROOKLYN — The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said its decision not to prosecute a former NYPD officer in the 1994 shooting of 13-year-old Nichoals Heyward, Jr. was based on a sound examination of the case, despite past claims that the city couldn't locate key related evidence and files.

Heyward was killed by retired cop Brian George inside the Gowanus Houses in Boerum Hill. According to the NYPD and media reports, George had entered the building following a report of gunfire from area rooftops. When he encountered Heyward, the boy was holding a toy gun, which the officer mistook for a real weapon.

In December 1994, former Brooklyn DA Charles J. Hynes elected not to prosecute George. A civil suit was settled with the boy's family in 1998.

In 2015, late Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson re-opened an investigation into the case, which Heyward's father, Nicholas Heyward, Sr. has always maintained was a case of murder.

But the DA's office recently returned the same result as before: the killing, while tragic, was justified by the circumstances.

A statement from the DA's office said the decision was based on "a comprehensive review of the case" which "involved locating and interviewing multiple witnesses in New York and out of state; a review of all available evidence, including photographs of the scene of the shooting and the toy gun...a visit to the stairwell in the Gowanus Houses where Heyward Jr. was killed; a review of documents related to the case, including the medical examiner’s report and transcripts of civil depositions of Police Officer Brian George; and finally, a review of the applicable law and a legal analysis."

The DA's office said it also allowed the Heyward family to provide any evidence it possessed, and spoke with three witnesses who were with Heyward, Jr. on the night he was killed.

"Officer George reasonably believed his life was in danger when suddenly confronted by Heyward Jr., who was holding a realistic-looking gun," the DA's office concluded. "The grief of losing a child is immeasurable, especially one like Heyward Jr., who had a bright and promising future. However, the totality of the evidence shows that, while an undoubtedly tragic incident, we cannot legally sustain murder charges in this case."

A law enforcement source told Patch that lesser charges, such as manslaughter, didn't apply, either, since George intentionally shot the boy.

At a March press conference, attorney Roger Wareham, who was advising the Heyward family, cast doubt on the quality of the DA's work, claiming that Thompson's staffers said they had been unable to locate files from the Hynes administration related to the case. Wareham also said the DA's investigators weren't able to locate relevant NYPD files, either.

The DA's office did not respond to the assertion in March or this week. However, a law enforcement source said that Thompson's investigators "went as far as a maximum security prison in Colorado to interview witnesses," one part of what was "a very thorough investigation."

The office also released photos of the toy gun Heyward had been holding, as identified by three witnesses. At the March press conference, Wareham held up a toy gun with an orange tip that he said was the same as Heyward's, to make the point that George should have easily been able to distinguish it from a real weapon.

But according to the DA's office, the orange tip originally on the gun "had been intentionally broken off," as shown in the photos of the toy:

Wareham did not return a request for comment left for him on Monday.

Pictured at top: Nicholas Heyward, Jr. Photo courtesy of the Heyward family