Man suspected of pointing gun at cops faces charges

The Deer Park man who Suffolk police said pointed a gun at officers after attending the wake of a Wyandanch teen killed last week is being held on bail in the Suffolk County jail.

Tashaun Wallace, 20, of Commack Road, was arraigned on Wednesday in First District Court in Central Islip on second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, second-degree menacing and second-degree criminal contempt stemming from an order of protection forbidding him from having a firearm. Wallace is being held on $75,000 cash bail and $100,000 bond.

Officers said he produced a gun after getting into an argument at the Home Depot Plaza in Copiague after attending the wake of Tyler Daniels, 16, who, police said, was shot dead while trying to break into a home in Wyandanch on Sept. 26.

Criminal intelligence officers said that Wallace, 20, of Deer Park, became involved in an altercation in the parking lot on Sunrise Highway after attending Daniels' wake. The officers said at one point, he retrieved a loaded .380-caliber handgun from his car. Detectives ordered him to drop the weapon, which they said he then pointed at the officers before complying and running away.

Wallace's attorney was unavailable for comment.

Police said Daniels, 16, of Wyandanch, the father of a 2-year-old toddler, was shot on the night of Sept. 26 after kicking down a door during an attempted home invasion.

But the teenager's family says he was killed in cold blood.

With John Valenti

and Reid Epstein