Paul Heidelberger (1964-1992) was a police officer who served with the New York City Housing Authority Police Department (now the NYPD) for six years. A resident of Queens Village, he was off duty when he was shot and killed on July 18, 1992, while attempting to break up a fight at a bar in Bayside, Queens. He was 28 years old.

Heidelberger was born on June 18, 1964. The youngest of seven children, he attended grade school at Our Lady of Lourdes in Queens Village and high school at St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, graduating in 1982. Heidelberger had a brother and a brother-in-law who were police officers, and he dreamed of pursuing the same career.

He graduated from the police academy in June of 1986. At the time of his death, he was living in Queens Village with his mother and was working out of a police unit in the Vladek Houses in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He was awarded three medals for Excellent Police Duty over the course of his career, including one received in January of 1991 following an incident where he was wounded in the leg while responding to a burglary.

He was survived at the time by his mother, two brothers, and two sisters. On September 22, 2024, a ceremony was held to co-name the intersection of 217th Street and Jamaica Avenue in Queens Village as PO Paul Heidelberger Way in honor of his service on the police force. The location is about one hundred yards from Heidelberger’s childhood home.