Suffolk police officer, slashed while arresting suspect, released from hospital, police say

A Suffolk police officer was released from the hospital Tuesday morning after he was slashed and stabbed with a knife while apprehending an alleged car thief, officials said.

Suffolk police arrested and charged Steven Vazquez, 22, and Marcello Martinez, 19, for allegedly breaking into cars before Vazquez stabbed a 29-year-old officer in the groin, according to Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina.

Police responded to a call around 12:26 a.m. Tuesday regarding two men wearing hoodies and breaking into cars parked on Gibbs Road near Coolidge Avenue in Copiague, Catalina said.

When officers arrived, they noticed Vazquez attempting to hide under a black pickup truck parked in a driveway on the residential street, Catalina said.

"As the officers were attempting to remove Vazquez from underneath the pickup truck, he slashed one officer in the face and then stabbed him in the groin," Catalina said. Officers soon placed Vazquez into custody.

Footage from a body camera worn by the injured cop, who was not identified, shows a fellow Suffolk police officer applying a tourniquet to his upper leg as blood from the wounded officer's chin dripped onto her right sleeve.

"Applying a tourniquet to someone who’s bleeding profusely from the groin is not an easy thing to do," Catalina said Tuesday afternoon. "I want to commend that officer for the great job that she did. ... Thankfully the wound was administered in an area where it missed ... a big artery, and there’s plenty else ... that can go wrong."

The officer was released from Good Samaritan University Hospital on Tuesday morning, Catalina said. When Catalina visited the officer, he could stand to greet him, but "he wasn’t walking well." The officer, who officials said has served in the Suffolk County Police Department for four years, received five stitches on his cut chin and will require further medical treatment for the stab wound.

"The wound to his groin, they had to leave open at this point, due to the fact that it could be infected because of the clothing and everything else that could go into that wound," Catalina said. "He’s doing a lot better and we’re hoping he makes a full recovery."

Vazquez, of Bay Shore, was charged with second-degree assault, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, resisting arrest, menacing a police officer and fourth-degree grand larceny. Martinez, of North Babylon, was charged with possession of burglar’s tools and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

The men will be arraigned Wednesday at First District Court in Central Islip.

The department has been grappling with car break-ins in its First Precinct, Catalina said. He noted police retrieved a car Vazquez and Martinez allegedly used Tuesday morning.

"They were traveling via car and they weren’t from the area," the commissioner said. "I would imagine it’s a crime of opportunity. They go where they think they can find cars to break into and they do."

With Maureen Mullarkey