Long Island cops chastised Governor Kathy Hochul for boasting about reducing gun violence hours before an officer was shot in the face by a deranged homicide suspect on Thursday.
On Thursday, an unidentified 33-year-old county police officer was shot in the face while authorities executed a search warrant at a North Bay Shore home, officials said. This occurred one day after the governor held an event on the island to promote anti-crime initiatives.
“The irony is not lost on us that the governor was just on Long Island yesterday saying crime is going down and today we have a Suffolk County Police Officer shot,” Suffolk PBA President Lou Civello told The Post.
“We’ve been dealing with this now for years, and each time a new band-aid gets applied, we find another circumstance that they missed,” Civello told me.
The head of the police union expressed gratitude that Albany, under Hochul, has approved changes to criminal bail and discovery laws that were significantly loosened in 2018 under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. These lax policies were criticized for allowing violent criminals to go free and possibly reoffend.
But Civello believes Hochul should push for more.
“We are grateful that she is providing funding here. We appreciate that she is trying to change the laws, and there has been some positive movement, but it simply does not go far enough,” he said.
Hochul spoke at the Suffolk County Police Academy on Wednesday, celebrating a 24% drop in Long Island murders from 2023 to 2024 and a 40% drop from 2021 to 2024.
“I know more than anyone, our work is always far from done when it comes to protecting people because one crime, one shooting, one murder is one too many,” Hochul told reporters.
The governor acknowledged that there has been a slight increase in murders in Suffolk County, but said, “Statistically, it doesn’t matter because it’s going from 14 to 16.”
The officer who was shot on Thursday has not been identified, but Catalina said he is a Navy veteran and married with three children.
“This officer’s wound was only a half inch from his eye. It was up against his cheek. Dr. James Vosswinkel of Stony Brook University Medical Center said it fractured his cheekbone and became lodged beneath his ear.
According to the surgeon, the bullet was half an inch away from killing the officer, who is expected to make a “complete and full recovery,” Vosswinkel said.
Cops were executing a search warrant in North Bay Shore for Nieves Reyes, 48, who is accused of fatally stabbing his coworker, Eugene Allen, 66. Reyes was arrested Thursday night by Suffolk police and charged with murder and attempted murder, according to cops.
The PBA is targeting Hochul at a time when the Democratic governor is preparing to run for re-election. Cops’ support will most likely play a significant role as Hochul attempts to make the case that she has improved public safety after being repeatedly chastised for crime during her first run in 2022.
