AG Letitia James' office begins probe into death of Medford man shot by Suffolk cops last week

The office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James has opened an investigation into the death of a Medford man shot and killed by Suffolk police last Wednesday, a spokesperson for the attorney general told Newsday on Tuesday.

Under state law, her Office of Special Investigation looks into any incident where a law-enforcement officer may have caused the death of a person by act or omission. Last week, the attorney general’s office said it had begun a preliminary assessment to determine if an investigation was called for.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison has called it a “justified shooting.”

Suffolk police said Enrique Lopez, who lived in a home operated by a nonprofit for people with disabilities and mental health issues, was shot last Wednesday evening after he lunged toward three police officers, stabbing two of them.

One officer was on a ventilator after he was stabbed in the clavicle and groin and suffered “life-threatening injuries,” Dr. James Vosswinkle, head of trauma at Stony Brook University Hospital, told reporters Thursday. That officer was still in the hospital Tuesday and listed in good condition, Suffolk police said.

The other injured officer was stabbed through his bulletproof vest perilously close to the heart, Vosswinkel said. He was released from the hospital Friday.

Police have not released the names of the officers who were stabbed, or said which officer fired the fatal shot.

Since April 2021, James has been required by law to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute any criminal offense that a police officer may have committed in connection with any incident in which the officer caused someone’s death. Those inquiries are performed by her Office of Special Investigations.

Officers with the Suffolk County Police Department have been the subject of two completed OI investigations, with investigators finding the officers had reason to believe they were in danger in both instances, according to OSI annual reports released in 2021 and 2022. Four other Suffolk County police cases have been referred to OSI since 2021 with one still pending investigation, another under preliminary assessment and two closed after investigators found police did not cause the person’s death, according to the most recent OSI report filed in September.

Across the state, OSI was actively prosecuting four officers – three in New York City and one in upstate Ulster County – on indictments that charged them with murder, according to the September report.

The OSI is comprised of 18 assistant attorneys general from eight regions across the state, including Nassau County, and 15 detectives.

Harrison said Thursday that three Sixth Precinct officers responded to a 911 call at about 5 p.m. Wednesday to an apartment in the Blue Ridge Condominium Complex on Birchwood Road in Medford, where Lopez was reportedly menacing others with a fire extinguisher.

“With my 30 years of law-enforcement experience, to me, this is a justified shooting,” Harrison said Thursday. “You have an individual who lunges at police officers, within a close proximity. He actually committed the act of stabbing the officers. It doesn’t seem like the officers had any other action but to use their weapons, to stop the force, to stop anybody else from being stabbed. ”

Harrison also said the investigators are looking into reports that neighbors had made numerous calls to the Homeowners Association and police about Lopez, 56, who had allegedly displayed erratic behavior in the past.

Online court records show Lopez, who previously lived in East Patchogue, was charged with felony assault in February 2011. He later pleaded guilty and served two years in prison followed by 15 months parole, probation department records show.

Harrison said Lopez’s 2011 arrest involved the assault of a Suffolk County police officer and court records show he was indicted for resisting arrest during that incident.

With Michael O'Keeffe

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.