New York AG probing fatal shooting of sword-wielding man in Elwood by Suffolk police

The state attorney general’s office says it is investigating Tuesday’s fatal shooting of an allegedly sword-wielding man in Elwood by a Suffolk police officer.

The officer shot the man, Alan Weber, 54, after another officer’s Taser failed to subdue Weber as he advanced wielding two fencing swords, according to a news release from the office of the attorney general, Letitia James.

Neither officer’s name has been disclosed.

Weber's family members could not be reached for comment Wednesday and Thursday.

An investigation by the state attorney general’s office, pursuant to a policy begun in 2015, doesn’t necessarily mean that an officer is at fault. Investigations are routine when a civilian is killed by police action or inaction, and the civilian is either unarmed or it’s disputed whether the person was armed and dangerous.

In Tuesday’s shooting, officers had been responding to a 911 call to Weber’s home, on Mander Lane, about a man acting strangely and sometimes violently. He was “screaming and breaking items in the house,” and the officers entered, the department said in a news release Wednesday.

He was alone inside. The police press office said the department would disclose its general policy on entry, only following the formal records-request process.

There is body-camera footage, but it’s not being released, according to the press office, which didn't say why.

The Suffolk police commissioner, Rodney K. Harrison, said Wednesday that he believed the shooting to be justified.

“Him charging at the officers, I feel the officers had no other choice but to use what they had to use to stop the threat,” Harrison said.

Officers responded to several calls Tuesday afternoon and evening to Weber’s house, Harrison said. He said that the department is still trying to determine whether Weber was suffering from a mental health crisis.

Harrison said police received a 911 call about a disturbance inside Weber’s home at 8:44 p.m. Officers who arrived at the scene about four minutes later looked into the window and saw the inside of the home in “total disarray,” the commissioner said.

“They were concerned, was there anybody else in the house in harm’s way,” Harrison added.

The officers found Weber in the basement. He was wearing a fencing mask and holding two fencing swords, Harrison said. The officers demanded that he put the swords down. When Weber refused, one officer, who has been on the force for four years, fired a Taser at him.

“The Taser did not have an effect on our subject, at which time he charged at our officers. Our other officer, that was there at the scene, pulled out his firearm and shot several times at our subject, and our subject went down,” Harrison said.

The officer who fired the fatal shot has been on the force for six years, Harrison said.

The officers performed CPR on Weber, who was taken to Huntington Hospital. He died at the hospital, Harrison said.

Both officers had received crisis intervention training to de-escalate interactions with mentally ill people.

The 1,000-page police reform plan approved by the county legislature called for several changes to how police respond to calls about mental health crises.

These changes included having Suffolk County police dispatchers diverting some 911 calls to crisis hotline workers, having officers use videoconferencing to work with social workers at the Diagnostic, Assessment and Stabilization Hub (DASH), a 24-hour crisis intervention center.

The plan also called on officers to refer residents with mental health issues who are the subject of three or more 911 calls in six months to the Family Service League, the social services organization that operates DASH and provides counseling, addiction treatment and other assistance.

With Michael O'Keeffe and Nicole Fuller

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.