Velazquez had long maintained his innocence in the 1998 shooting death of a former police officer. NBC's "Dateline" chronicled his decadeslong quest to clear his name.

According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg's office, two individuals committed a robbery of a gambling parlor on Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem on Jan. 27, 1998. During the robbery, retired police detective Albert Ward pulled a gun and a struggle ensued with one of the armed robbers, who identified himself as “Tee.”