Wyandanch road to be renamed in honor of one of Suffolk's first black officers

The Town of Babylon is ceremonially renaming a Wyandanch road in honor of a longtime resident who died earlier this year.

The board recently voted to change the name of a nearly two-mile stretch of Straight Path between Main Avenue and Cumberbach Street to John Cleveland Carter Way.

Carter was a Vietnam veteran and one of the first black officers in the Suffolk County Police Department. In the 1980s, he started a boxing program for the Police Athletic League in Brentwood, continuing to coach right up until his death from a heart attack on Jan. 31.

Carter, who was 69 when he died, was known to mentor troubled youth through the program, his family said, helping to refocus their energy into the ring.

His "tough love" methods earned him respect from the kids he trained, his son John Carter Jr. said at the time of his father's death.