Widow testifies before grand jury probing husband's death by Suffolk police in 2018

The wife of a man fatally shot by Suffolk police outside their Shirley home in December 2018 said her husband had struggled with mental health issues, after she appeared Tuesday before a grand jury investigating the case. 

Terri Kellogg said her husband Walter Kellogg, then 57 years old, was severely depressed because the couple’s daughter had died a few months before his deadly confrontation with a Suffolk police officer.

“He was depressed and he was crying and he wanted to go to the emergency room psychiatric unit and that is when it happened, that is when he was shot,” a tearful Terri Kellogg said outside Suffolk County Supreme Court in Central Islip after testifying before the grand jury. 

Terri Kellogg said the officer who shot her husband has to be held "accountable."

Suffolk officials did not identify the officer but Suffolk police confirmed he is an officer on the force.

Kellogg family attorney Mark Kujawksi of Deer Park said at a news conference in front of the courthouse that the officer had been accused of inappropriate and excessive use of force before and after Kellogg’s death. 

Seventh Precinct officers responded to a 911 call about a suicidal man at the Shirley home on Dec. 15, 2018, Suffolk police said at the time of the shooting. The officers were confronted by Walter Kellogg, who was wielding a knife and cut himself before he turned the weapon on an officer, police said. The officer then shot Kellogg, who police said had a history of mental illness.

Kujawski said Walter Kellogg was shot six times and died on the front lawn of the couple’s home while medical attention was on the way, Kujawksi said. 

“He just wanted help,” Terri Kellogg said. “He didn’t deserve what happened.” 

The grand jury investigation into Kellogg’s death comes as protests over the May 25 death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police have roiled Long Island and communities across the nation. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order requiring law enforcement agencies to reinvent policing by April 2021 or risk losing state funding, which Nassau and Suffolk officials have said provides a fresh opportunity reexamine how police operate and interact with the public.

“There needs to be a discussion about the role of the police in response to noncriminal aided calls such as this,” Kujawksi said. 

The police officer could not be reached for comment and Suffolk police declined to comment while the case is before the grand jury.   A spokesman for Suffolk County Distric Attorney Timothy Sini declined to discuss the case. A representative of the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents officers, was not immediately available for comment.

Kujawski said he believed the case was being presented to a grand jury more than a year-and-a-half after the shooting because of the renewed focus on use of force in cases involving people with mental illness.

“The system right now is not working,” Kujawski said. “No force should have been used in this circumstance.”

Kujawski told reporters he had received a hand-delivered letter late Monday from Sini that said public expressions of support could taint the grand jury investigation. Kujawski said he did not believe Tuesday's news conference would prejudice the case but said he would stick to “matters of public record.”