Scarangella Park

Scarangella Park, officially Police Officer John G. Scarangella Park, is a 3.21-acre park in the Gravesend section of southern Brooklyn, across from Lafayette High School near Stillwell Avenue and West 13th Street. The park serves the surrounding residential neighborhood with a baseball field, basketball court, playground, and spray showers.

The park is named in memory of New York City Police Officer John Gerard Scarangella (1940-1981), known as Jerry, one of five children born in Brooklyn to Italian immigrants. Over a twelve-year career he served in the 60th, 67th, and 113th Precincts and earned numerous commendations and citations for his police work.

On April 16, 1981, while on duty in St. Albans, Queens, Officer Scarangella and his partner Richard Rainey were shot during a traffic stop. Rainey survived, but Scarangella died of his wounds on May 1, 1981. The playground, long known as the Lafayette High School Playground after the school across the street, was renamed in his honor in 1992.

The surrounding Gravesend and Bensonhurst neighborhoods are diverse residential communities of row houses and small apartment buildings, home to Italian-American, Chinese, Russian, and other families. The park provides accessible recreation space for children and families in the surrounding blocks.

Scarangella Park honors an officer who gave his life in the line of duty, providing the everyday recreation space that anchors community life in this corner of southern Brooklyn and keeping the memory of a fallen local hero present for the families who use it.