Man charged with obstruction after being shot by cop

The Farmingdale man shot and wounded by police as they tried to subdue his girlfriend has been charged with trying to obstruct officers in the moments before one of them shot him in the chest.

Michael Moran, 27, is charged with obstructing governmental administration, a second-degree misdemeanor. He was listed in stable condition at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip yesterday.

Police said the altercation started shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday, when Moran's girlfriend, Jeanine Trapani, 30, of Brentwood, left a West Babylon doctor's office in a state that prompted a staff member there to call 911 and report that a woman needed help.

Officers located Trapani in a Dunkin' Donuts shop about a block away "in an extremely agitated state," police said. Three officers were attempting to subdue her when Moran entered, threw a backpack at the group in the rear of the shop, and ran forward, police said.

One of the officers, a 23-year-veteran of the department, drew his weapon and fired two shots at Moran. One of the bullets struck Moran in the chest. Police said it did not appear that Moran reached the group before he was shot. He was not carrying a weapon. Neither of the other two officers drew their guns.

"This whole thing happened very, very quickly," said Det. Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky of the Suffolk Homicide Squad on Wednesday.

One of Moran's sisters, Brooke Moran, 24, a middle-school teacher in Florida, said she heard about the shooting Thursday. "I think that obviously the cop was scared or whatever, but he could have taken out a can of mace or pepper spray, or taken out a baton and hit him," she said. "There was actually no reason for him to take out a gun - no reason to shoot an unarmed man."

She said her brother, one of six children, who grew up in East Islip, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a child and has been in and out of mental hospitals much of his life. "He's a very caring person," she said. "He's thin, about 5-9 or 5-10, maybe 140 pounds . . . I guess he should have backed off and not done anything, but I think he was just upset about his girlfriend."

Police said yesterday the investigation by Suffolk police's Homicide Squad continued, but they offered no other details. The officer, whom police have declined to identify, did not work yesterday; police declined to say if his work status has changed.

The doctor's office is run by Federation of Organizations, a nonprofit that provides case management and other services for people with mental health issues. A staff member referred questions to a company executive, Barbara Faron. Faron did not return messages yesterday. Trapani lives in a residential facility in Brentwood run by the same organization.

Moran is charged with obstructing governmental administration as a second-degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison. He has a pending criminal case in Suffolk related to an arrest in May for misdemeanor harassment. His court-appointed attorney, Adam Halpern, declined to comment. A felony criminal charge for criminal mischief in 2008 was later reduced to a misdemeanor. Moran was released without posting bail after that arrest, according to online court records.

- With Bill Mason