Former NYS Trooper Thomas Mascia shot himself at park near Southern State, setting off 'wild-goose chase' for nonexistent shooter, DA says
The former Long Island-based state trooper, celebrated as a hero after claiming he was shot by a driver on the Southern State Parkway last year, actually shot himself in a nearby park and stashed the gun at home before setting off a "wild-goose chase" for a nonexistent shooter, a Nassau prosecutor said Monday.
Thomas J. Mascia, 27, of West Hempstead, who resigned from the force last Friday, pleaded not guilty to charges of tampering with physical evidence, falsely reporting an incident and official misconduct at his arraignment in Nassau First District Court in Hempstead.
"Our investigation determined that Mascia deliberately shot himself and he lied about it," state police Superintendent Steven James said at a news conference Monday.
Mascia's Manhattan-based defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said in a statement: “This case is a tragedy that was caused by unseen and untreated mental health issues. And now an entire family is suffering for it as they usually do in such situations."
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, speaking at the news conference with state police, said Mascia "failed his oath as an officer" and his "selfish act wasted extraordinary resources."
Both Donnelly and James said investigators have not determined a motive for Mascia's alleged actions. In court papers, prosecutors said: “the trooper’s actions for the above-described conduct were unauthorized in his official capacity and instead were for the benefit of gaining attention or sympathy for himself.”
"It's speculation," James said. "We can surmise many instances whether he sought to get a disability retirement, whether he sought to seek the attention of an unrequited love. Those are issues on the fringes that have come to our attention. But nothing definitive."
Nassau prosecutor Jared Rosenblatt, the Homicide Bureau chief, speaking in court Monday, said on the night of Oct. 30, Mascia dropped "a handful of rounds" on the Southern State Parkway and then drove to Hempstead Lake Park, where he "shot himself."
Mascia then allegedly dumped the gun, a .22-caliber, at his home, and returned to the Southern State where he reported a man, who Rosenblatt called "a figment of the defendant's imagination," had shot him.
Mascia's parents — including his father, a former NYPD officer who is a convicted felon also named Thomas Mascia, 62, and his mother, Dorothy Mascia, 55, — were also arrested Monday and pleaded not guilty to one count of criminal possession of a firearm.
Investigators found what they said was an illegal gun in the parents' bedroom when they executed a search warrant at the Gruber Court home they shared with their son, prosecutors said.
Donnelly also said police found "close to $800,000" in cash inside the home.
"The money, at this point, has really been linked to his parents," Donnelly said, adding the investigation is ongoing.
The former trooper and his parents turned themselves in at the state police barracks in East Farmingdale early Monday morning to be arrested, a stunning turn of events for Mascia, who had been a trooper since 2019, even serving as a training officer at the state police academy.
Mascia had been suspended without pay since early November, when the state police announced it had launched an investigation into the circumstances of the shooting and that it had stopped searching for the alleged shooter's vehicle — the description of which was provided by Mascia.
Mascia and his parents were released without bail. Mascia, wearing a brown hoodie, declined to answer questions as he left the courthouse.
James said, almost immediately, state police investigators came across inconsistencies in Mascia's story.
"In a matter of hours, the story began to unravel," James said.
The investigation spread to New Jersey and Delaware as investigators tried in vain to track the Dodge Charger that Mascia had described, Donnelly said.
"After combing the scene of the alleged shooting for any shred of physical evidence — bullets, tire marks or anything else that could tell us what happened — those searches all ended the same way. Nine shell casings but no projectiles found at the scene. No tire marks. Not a single video that showed the Dodge Charger Mascia said belonging to his shooter ever driving on any of the roads that we had video for."
Ultimately, investigators were able to track Mascia's movements that night using GPS and license plate readers.
Mascia, while on patrol, was shot in his right leg, near his knee, on Oct. 30 at about 11:45 p.m. after he said he approached a black Dodge Charger he thought was stranded on the parkway near Exit 17 in West Hempstead, police previously said.
Mascia had told authorities the alleged suspect was a "dark-skinned" male, driving what was believed to be a black, late model Dodge Charger with temporary New Jersey tags, rear tinted windows and custom matte gray dual-exhaust tips.
Mascia was hit with a .22-caliber gunshot in his right quadriceps near his knee, police said, and retreated behind his patrol vehicle as the other vehicle fled west, police have said.
Mascia applied a tourniquet to his injured leg and called for assistance, James has said.
"Shots fired, shots fired, I’m hit," the trooper said, giving his location on the parkway, according to police radio transmissions on Broadcastify.com that Newsday reported following the shooting.
"I’m bleeding pretty good in the leg," the trooper said. "Got a tourniquet on."
Mascia was released from Nassau University Medical Center a day after the shooting to much fanfare. Hundreds of state troopers and Nassau County police officers gathered outside the hospital in support of the injured trooper.
"I'm feeling good," Mascia said that day as he was pushed in a wheelchair.
Donnelly recalled the hero's welcome he received.
"Law enforcement throughout Long Island celebrated that he was safe and we vowed to find the individual who shot him, but we never would — because the shooter we were all looking for, only existed in Mascia's head, in his imagination," Donnelly said.
Mascia's father was fired from the NYPD in 1993 for selling cocaine, public records show.
The senior Mascia, who was assigned to the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, "was dismissed effective Feb. 10, the date he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine," according to a 1993 Newsday article.
"Mascia, of West Hempstead, and four other New York City cops who live on Long Island were arrested by Suffolk County Police in May, 1992, and charged with buying cocaine while on duty and distributing it on Long Island," the article reported.
The New York State Police Benevolent Association, the union representing about 6,000 active and retired troopers across the state, said in a statement, "We are saddened and sickened by this case. Those who proudly wear and do justice to the uniform do so knowing that on any given day we may find ourselves in harm’s way as part of our duty to protect the safety of all New Yorkers."
The former Long Island-based state trooper, celebrated as a hero after claiming he was shot by a driver on the Southern State Parkway last year, actually shot himself in a nearby park and stashed the gun at home before setting off a "wild-goose chase" for a nonexistent shooter, a Nassau prosecutor said Monday.
Thomas J. Mascia, 27, of West Hempstead, who resigned from the force last Friday, pleaded not guilty to charges of tampering with physical evidence, falsely reporting an incident and official misconduct at his arraignment in Nassau First District Court in Hempstead.
"Our investigation determined that Mascia deliberately shot himself and he lied about it," state police Superintendent Steven James said at a news conference Monday.
Mascia's Manhattan-based defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said in a statement: “This case is a tragedy that was caused by unseen and untreated mental health issues. And now an entire family is suffering for it as they usually do in such situations."
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- The former Long Island-based state trooper who said he was shot by a driver on the Southern State Parkway last year shot himself in a nearby park and stashed the gun at his home before setting off a "wild-goose chase" for a nonexistent shooter, a Nassau prosecutor said.
- Thomas J. Mascia, 27, of West Hempstead, pleaded not guilty to charges of tampering with physical evidence, falsely reporting an incident and official misconduct.
- In court papers, prosecutors said his conduct was to gain "attention or sympathy for himself."
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, speaking at the news conference with state police, said Mascia "failed his oath as an officer" and his "selfish act wasted extraordinary resources."
Both Donnelly and James said investigators have not determined a motive for Mascia's alleged actions. In court papers, prosecutors said: “the trooper’s actions for the above-described conduct were unauthorized in his official capacity and instead were for the benefit of gaining attention or sympathy for himself.”
"It's speculation," James said. "We can surmise many instances whether he sought to get a disability retirement, whether he sought to seek the attention of an unrequited love. Those are issues on the fringes that have come to our attention. But nothing definitive."
Nassau prosecutor Jared Rosenblatt, the Homicide Bureau chief, speaking in court Monday, said on the night of Oct. 30, Mascia dropped "a handful of rounds" on the Southern State Parkway and then drove to Hempstead Lake Park, where he "shot himself."
Mascia then allegedly dumped the gun, a .22-caliber, at his home, and returned to the Southern State where he reported a man, who Rosenblatt called "a figment of the defendant's imagination," had shot him.
Mascia's parents — including his father, a former NYPD officer who is a convicted felon also named Thomas Mascia, 62, and his mother, Dorothy Mascia, 55, — were also arrested Monday and pleaded not guilty to one count of criminal possession of a firearm.
Investigators found what they said was an illegal gun in the parents' bedroom when they executed a search warrant at the Gruber Court home they shared with their son, prosecutors said.
Donnelly also said police found "close to $800,000" in cash inside the home.
"The money, at this point, has really been linked to his parents," Donnelly said, adding the investigation is ongoing.
The former trooper and his parents turned themselves in at the state police barracks in East Farmingdale early Monday morning to be arrested, a stunning turn of events for Mascia, who had been a trooper since 2019, even serving as a training officer at the state police academy.
Mascia had been suspended without pay since early November, when the state police announced it had launched an investigation into the circumstances of the shooting and that it had stopped searching for the alleged shooter's vehicle — the description of which was provided by Mascia.
Mascia and his parents were released without bail. Mascia, wearing a brown hoodie, declined to answer questions as he left the courthouse.
James said, almost immediately, state police investigators came across inconsistencies in Mascia's story.
"In a matter of hours, the story began to unravel," James said.
The investigation spread to New Jersey and Delaware as investigators tried in vain to track the Dodge Charger that Mascia had described, Donnelly said.
"After combing the scene of the alleged shooting for any shred of physical evidence — bullets, tire marks or anything else that could tell us what happened — those searches all ended the same way. Nine shell casings but no projectiles found at the scene. No tire marks. Not a single video that showed the Dodge Charger Mascia said belonging to his shooter ever driving on any of the roads that we had video for."
Ultimately, investigators were able to track Mascia's movements that night using GPS and license plate readers.
Mascia, while on patrol, was shot in his right leg, near his knee, on Oct. 30 at about 11:45 p.m. after he said he approached a black Dodge Charger he thought was stranded on the parkway near Exit 17 in West Hempstead, police previously said.
Mascia had told authorities the alleged suspect was a "dark-skinned" male, driving what was believed to be a black, late model Dodge Charger with temporary New Jersey tags, rear tinted windows and custom matte gray dual-exhaust tips.
Mascia was hit with a .22-caliber gunshot in his right quadriceps near his knee, police said, and retreated behind his patrol vehicle as the other vehicle fled west, police have said.
Mascia applied a tourniquet to his injured leg and called for assistance, James has said.
"Shots fired, shots fired, I’m hit," the trooper said, giving his location on the parkway, according to police radio transmissions on Broadcastify.com that Newsday reported following the shooting.
"I’m bleeding pretty good in the leg," the trooper said. "Got a tourniquet on."
Mascia was released from Nassau University Medical Center a day after the shooting to much fanfare. Hundreds of state troopers and Nassau County police officers gathered outside the hospital in support of the injured trooper.
"I'm feeling good," Mascia said that day as he was pushed in a wheelchair.
Donnelly recalled the hero's welcome he received.
"Law enforcement throughout Long Island celebrated that he was safe and we vowed to find the individual who shot him, but we never would — because the shooter we were all looking for, only existed in Mascia's head, in his imagination," Donnelly said.
Mascia's father was fired from the NYPD in 1993 for selling cocaine, public records show.
The senior Mascia, who was assigned to the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, "was dismissed effective Feb. 10, the date he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine," according to a 1993 Newsday article.
"Mascia, of West Hempstead, and four other New York City cops who live on Long Island were arrested by Suffolk County Police in May, 1992, and charged with buying cocaine while on duty and distributing it on Long Island," the article reported.
The New York State Police Benevolent Association, the union representing about 6,000 active and retired troopers across the state, said in a statement, "We are saddened and sickened by this case. Those who proudly wear and do justice to the uniform do so knowing that on any given day we may find ourselves in harm’s way as part of our duty to protect the safety of all New Yorkers."
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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