Suffolk police Internal Affairs Bureau  investigating fatal shooting video release

Suffolk police are investigating what the department called “the unauthorized release” of body-camera footage showing officers fatally shooting a knife-wielding man who stabbed an officer in Bay Shore on Saturday.

The video was posted on media websites and social media on Saturday, several hours after Taiquell Woodson, 33, charged at an officer who fell in the snow on the front lawn of a home on Udall Road and stabbed him several times.

“The department is not releasing the body-worn camera video at this time,” a spokeswoman for the department said in an email on Monday. “The Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the unauthorized release of the body-worn camera footage.”

Acting Suffolk Police Commissioner Robert Waring called the fatal shooting “justified” at a news conference on Saturday.

The state Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation is conducting a preliminary assessment of the matter, an official told Newsday. A law approved by New York legislators in 2020 requires the attorney general to investigate every incident where a police officer’s actions may have caused death.

The video appears to show a man police identified as Woodson bursting through the front door of the Udall Road home carrying a large knife. An officer appears to try to evade the suspect but slips on the snowy lawn. The man identified as Woodson appears to fall to his knees on the lawn next to the officer and appears to repeatedly raise the knife before other officers fire approximately half a dozen shots.

Officers responded to the home Saturday morning after Woodson’s wife called 911 to report a domestic dispute after Woodson became violent, police officials said Saturday. A 1-year-old child was also at the scene, police officials said Saturday.

Woodson’s wife and other family members did not respond to calls for comment on Monday.

Suffolk police have not identified the officers at the scene. Dr. James Vosswinkel, the chief of trauma at Stony Brook University Hospital, emergency surgery and critical care, said the stabbed officer suffered injuries to his hand, both forearms and his face.

Officers at the scene provided CPR to Woodson, who was pronounced dead at South Shore University Hospital.

The injured officer was taken to Stony Brook, where his wounds were treated before he was released. Two other officers involved in the incident were also taken to the Stony Brook hospital and were released later Saturday. It is not clear when the officers will return to work, police said.

“All three officers are with their families,” Vosswinkel said. “All three will be followed up by us and get supportive services.”

The attack occurred a day before two police officers and a firefighter responding to a domestic incident were fatally shot Sunday in Burnsville, Minnesota.

The officer injured on Saturday is the fifth Suffolk officer stabbed or shot in the line of duty in recent years. Sgt. Christopher Racioppo nearly bled to death after he was stabbed by a criminal suspect in a Patchogue backyard in April 2021.

Officers Raymond Stock and Brenden Gallagher were stabbed by a domestic menacing suspect in Medford in December 2022. Officer Michael LaFauci was investigating a robbery when he was shot in the thigh by a suspect in Coram in May 2023. 

With Nicole Fuller and Tracy Tullis