On the afternoon of Friday, January 23, 1987, 26-year-old NYPD officer Michael Mickey Reidy was shot and killed in the vestibule of his University Heights apartment building on University Avenue. Reidy, off duty and returning from errands at about 3:15 p.m., was confronted by a man attempting to rob him. A struggle followed; Reidy was shot multiple times, including a wound to the chest that pierced his heart. He managed to draw his service weapon and return fire but did not hit the attacker. He was taken to North Central Bronx Hospital and died during surgery about an hour later, leaving his mother Nora and five siblings.

The NYPD arrested a suspect three days later, on January 26, 1987, charging 24-year-old Angel Maldonado with murder and attempted robbery in the case. The southwest corner of Fordham Road and University Avenue, near where Reidy was killed, was later renamed Police Officer Michael Reidy Pathway in his honor.