Police Officer Robert D. Patterson

Police Officer Robert D. Patterson

Birmingham Police Department, Alabama

End of Watch Sunday, October 31, 1982

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Robert D. Patterson

Police Officer Robert Patterson was shot and killed by another officer who mistook him for an offender.

Officer Patterson was working plainclothes, secondary employment job at a nightclub on Morris Avenue. He had broken up a fight between two women and disarmed one of them who had pulled out a knife. As Officer Patterson walked the woman out of the nightclub he encountered an on-duty officer who was unaware of what had just occurred and mistook Officer Patterson as an offender who was holding a woman at knifepoint.

The officer grabbed Officer Patterson's arm and shot him. Officer Patterson died in surgery a short time later.

Bio

  • Age 51
  • Tour 20 years
  • Badge Not available

Incident Details

  • Cause Gunfire (Inadvertent)

mistaken identity, plainclothes, secondary employment

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It is not how you died that made you my hero, it is how you lived!

Joy
Daughter

October 31, 2021

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