On the morning of Friday, March 3, 1989, 25-year-old NYPD Officer Robert E. Machate was on plainclothes patrol with the Brooklyn South Task Force Anti-Crime Unit in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn. He and his partner stopped a vehicle with two men on East 23rd Street near Newkirk Avenue; the encounter escalated into a violent struggle. During the confrontation, one suspect overpowered Officer Machate, took his service weapon and a single shot struck Machate in his left side beneath his vest.

Machate was transported to Kings County Hospital, where he died of his injuries. He had served two and a half years with the NYPD and was the first officer killed in the line of duty in 1989. He left a pregnant wife, parents and two siblings, one of whom was also an NYPD officer.

Responding officers quickly apprehended the suspect hiding in a nearby basement; he was charged with murder but later acquitted of that charge and convicted of Criminal Possession of a Weapon and Escape. A local park circle was later renamed in Machate’s honor. If anyone has information about Machate, his final patrol, or the scene on East 23rd Street near Newkirk Avenue, please share what is known.