NEW YORK – New York State Police suspended a trooper without pay Monday after launching an investigation into his account of being shot and wounded while attempting to help a motorist on a Long Island highway last week.
Officers executed a search warrant at Trooper Thomas Mascia's residence in West Hempstead earlier Monday as they probed the circumstances of the shooting he reported Oct. 30, which had prompted a manhunt for the purported gunman.
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State police canceled an alert issued for a black Dodge Charger with a temporary New Jersey registration that the trooper said was involved in the shooting.
Department spokesperson Beau Duffy declined to comment further on the suspension.
“We can’t get into specifics while the investigation is ongoing,” he wrote in a email.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said her office is assisting state police in investigating “certain inconsistencies” in the reporting of the shooting. A spokesperson for her office declined to elaborate, saying the investigation is ongoing.
Police on Monday closed off the West Hempstead road where Mascia lives, and officers were seen entering his home.
Neighbors told Newsday that investigators began knocking on doors to ask residents questions and seek doorbell camera footage Sunday.
Mascia, who was released from the hospital Friday, didn’t respond to phone messages seeking comment Monday.
Jeffrey Lichtman, a lawyer representing the trooper, said he's still gathering facts about the case.
“Nothing to offer beyond that at this time, unfortunately,” he wrote in an email.
The New York State Police Benevolent Association, a union representing state troopers, said it is not involved in the investigation but is monitoring the situation.
New York State Police Superintendent Steven James said at a news conference last week that the shooting happened on the Southern State Parkway in West Hempstead, which is roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Manhattan in suburban Nassau County.
Mascia had been patrolling the parkway shortly before midnight when he observed a black sedan parked on the left-hand shoulder and went to offer assistance, James said.
When he exited his patrol car, he said, he was met with gunfire and shot in the leg before the driver fled heading west in the direction of New York City.
The 27-year-old, who became a trooper in 2019, used a tourniquet to stem the bleeding until other officers arrived, James said.
Police at the time said there was no video footage of the episode since the trooper’s body camera was not activated.
The camera activates automatically when the lights on a patrol car's roof are fully turned on; Mascia reported only turning on the rear lights of the car.
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Cop Shot, a New York City group, offered a total of $15,000 in rewards for information about the shooting.