Long Island cops ripped Gov. Kathy Hochul for bragging about bringing down gun violence hours before an officer was shot in the face by a deranged homicide suspect 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 on Thursday, officials said. — one day after the governor held an event on the island to tout anti-crime initiatives.
“The irony is not lost on us that the governor was just on Long Island yesterday saying that 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 said.
The police union head said he appreciates that Albany under Hochul has approved changes to criminal bail and discovery laws after they’d been significantly loosened in 2018 under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Those lax policies were criticized for allowing violent criminals to walk free and potentially reoffend.
But Civello said Hochul needs to push for more.
“We are appreciative that she’s providing funding here. We are appreciative that she is trying to make some tweaks to the laws and there’s been some positive movement, but it really just does not go far enough,” he said.
Hochul held an event at the Suffolk County Police Academy Wednesday, cheering a 24% drop in murders on Long Island from 2023 to 2024 and 40% between 2021 and 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 said.
The governor did acknowledge that there’s been a slight uptick in murders in Suffolk County specifically, but said “statistically it doesn’t matter because it’s going from 14 to 16.”
The name of the officer who was shot Thursday had not been released, but Catalina said he’s a Navy vet and is married with three kids.
“This officer’s wound was literally a half inch away from his eye. It was up on his cheek. It fractured his cheekbone, and it was lodged beneath his ear,” Dr. James Vosswinkel of Stony Brook University Medical Center said.
The surgeon said the bullet was half an inch from killing the officer, who is expected to make a “complete and full recovery,”Vosswinkel said.
Cops were executing the search warrant in North Bay Shore for Nieves Reyes, 48, who is accused of stabbing to death his coworker, 66-year-old Eugene Allen. Reyes was in custody of Suffolk police Thursday night, and had been slapped with murder and attempted murder charges, cops said.
The PBA is calling out Hochul just as the Democratic governor is heading into reelection mode. Support of cops will likely play a major role as Hochul tries to make the case that she’s improved public safety after getting repeatedly slammed over crime during her first run in 2022.
