Suffolk police officer shoots, kills man with knife in Centereach, commissioner says

A knife-wielding assailant was shot and killed by a Suffolk police officer early Sunday in Centereach after the assailant returned to the scene to again attack a man that he had stabbed earlier, the police commissioner said.

A Suffolk police officer was rendering lifesaving aid to the victim, who had suffered a stab wound to the neck, when the man's alleged attacker emerged from a wooded area behind a Middle Country Road strip mall carrying a 10-to-12-inch knife, Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

"[The suspect] yells, he approaches the victim, who was being treated, and attempts to stab him again," Catalina said from the crime scene. "One of our officers pulled out his weapon, fired at the suspect, striking him."

Catalina said the suspect, later identified by police as 29-year-old Emilson Yoan Ordonez-Vanegaz, who was homeless, was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The victim, identified only as a 44-year-old man, is being treated for his stab wound at the same hospital, the police commissioner said. Police did not immediately release the man's identity.

"Had it not been for the officer's quick actions, the victim would have been stabbed with that knife and probably killed," Catalina said.

The police officers involved in the situation were being treated for tinnitus but were not otherwise injured, the commissioner said.

Officers had been notified by an 8:38 a.m. 911 caller of a "disturbance with a weapon" behind the businesses at 2505 Middle Country Road, police said. The small strip mall contains a deli, restaurant and smoke shop.

The first officer arrived to find the stabbing victim, Catalina said. He began to treat the man's neck wound while also trying to get a description of a suspect, according to the commissioner. Additional units responded to the scene within five minutes, he added. The man with the knife emerged from the wooded area and advanced toward them before another officer shot him, Catalina said.

Police believe the altercation involved only the two men, according to the commissioner.

Homicide Squad detectives continued to investigate at the scene Sunday afternoon with the assistance of the police department's Crime Lab.

Investigators with the Internal Affairs division were also present, Catalina said, and the New York State Attorney General's Office, which investigates all officer-involved shootings, was notified.

Catalina said investigators are still working to learn what led up to the stabbing, which, he added, took place behind the strip mall.

Suffolk County Legis. Nick Caracappa, (R-Selden) who attended the news conference, noted the quick response by Sixth Precinct officers to the scene, and also by additional police to a spate of overdoses in nearby Coram on Friday.

"Spreading the word [on the overdoses] alone probably saved lives," Caracappa said. "Then with the quick response on this, within seconds this person comes out of the woods and it was just a quick action. The training kicked in and he probably saved this gentleman's life."

Middle Country Road in the area of the shooting was closed for much of the day but was reopened about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, police said.
Newsday's Peter Gill contributed to this story

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.