On September 27, 1994, 13-year old Nicholas Heyward Jr was playing a game of cops and robbers with his friends at 423 Baltic Street, where he lived with his family. It was in the middle of this game that Nicholas Jr was shot and killed by housing police officer Brian George. 

Former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes chose not to bring the case before a grand jury, claiming that the toy gun in Nicholas Jr’s hands looked too realistic and that George shot the boy within a split second. 

Based on Officer George’s own account of what took place and the account of other eyewitnesses that were never questioned by Hynes’s office, the claims Hynes presented to justify no prosecution are false. 

Among the many contradictions: 

 the stairwell lighting was not dim 

 the shooting did not take place in a split second and was not accidental 

 the toy gun was obviously plastic with a bright orange tip 

 George shot Nicholas Jr after the boy told him, “We’re only playing” 

 Nicholas Jr asked the first eyewitness on the scene, “Why did he shoot me?” 

 The first cops on the scene debated over planting a real gun on Nicholas Jr