RIP

Central Park Five: Mike Sheehan, Veteran NYPD Detective on Case, Dead at 71

The detective-turned-reporter was a key investigator in the Central Park Five and “preppie murder” cases.

Mike Sheehan, a veteran NYPD detective who was an integral investigator in the controversial Central Park Five jogger rape case, has died at the age of 71, according to the New York Daily News. Sheehan, who became a prominent news reporter, was a key member of the investigative team that led to the arrest and later acquittal of five African American teens for rape. He was also a key investigator that led to the arrest of so-called “preppie killer” Robert Chambers. “He was a great detective,” NYPD Detectives Endowment Association president Michael Palladino told the New York Daily News. “He was one of those old-time detectives that people write the books and make the movies about.” Sheehan retired from the force in 1993 to become a news reporter for Fox 5 until he was fired in 2009 for hitting a NYPD horse with his car.