Cops: Officer fatally shoots armed man after standoff in Greenport

A Suffolk Emergency Service officer in an armored vehicle shot and killed a Greenport man Thursday after he emerged from his apartment with a long gun following a three-hour standoff and swung it toward the officer, authorities said.

Robert Myers, 63, of Middle Country Road, was pronounced dead at Stony Brook University Hospital after the officer fired one shot at him at about 4: 20 p.m., police said.

Southold police officers had responded at noon Thursday to Myers' residence after a friend reported he was depressed, suicidal and owned guns, officials said. Officers set up a perimeter around Myers' apartment and contacted the Suffolk police department's Hostage Negotiation Team and Emergency Service section, police said. 

After about three hours of back-and-forth discussions by phone and Myers firing multiple shots inside his home and at officers outside, negotiators told him to come out of the house with no weapons, said Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer at the scene Thursday night. Myers agreed to leave his apartment unarmed but when he emerged, Beyrer and other police officials said, he swung the rifle at the officer and others in the armored vehicle.

Police said in a news release Thursday night that the officer fired his weapon, striking Myers in the chest.

Myers had said he wanted to “commit suicide by having the police shoot him,” Beyrer said.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.