A street renaming ceremony is being held on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 3 p.m. at Baltic and Hoyt streets in Brooklyn in honor of late community organizer Nicholas Heyward Sr., the father of young police shooting victim Nicholas Heyward Jr.
The event is being organized by Heyward’s wife, Donna. In 1994, Nicholas Jr., who was 13, was playing with his friends with a toy gun in the stairwell of a Brooklyn NYCHA housing complex. He was fatally shot by a housing police officer who thought the toy gun was real. The officer involved, Brian George, was not charged as the case was not brought before a grand jury.
After his son’s death, Nicholas Sr. dedicated his life to activism and community organizing. He led several protests against police brutality.