NYS Trooper Thomas Mascia suspended without pay, police say

New York State Police Trooper Thomas Mascia was suspended without pay Monday as police spent hours searching his West Hempstead home as part of an investigation into the circumstances of how Mascia was shot and wounded on the Southern State Parkway last week.

Mascia's suspension came just hours after the state police said it was investigating last Wednesday's shooting and the agency had stopped searching for the alleged shooter's vehicle.

"State Police is conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the shooting involving Trooper Mascia that was reported on Oct. 30," said Beau Duffy, the executive director of public information for the state police, in a statement Monday in response to Newsday inquiries. "This remains an ongoing investigation and further specifics are not being released at this time."

Duffy said police "are no longer seeking the Dodge Charger that was reported as being involved in the incident."

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, in a statement, said the investigation is examining "certain inconsistencies," without providing specifics.

"My office, in partnership with the New York State Police, is actively investigating certain inconsistencies identified in the reporting of a shooting incident involving New York State Trooper Thomas Mascia last week on the Southern State Parkway," Donnelly said.

Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Mascia's Gruber Court home in West Hempstead, Duffy said Monday. His street was closed to vehicle traffic, and more than a dozen state troopers were at the scene.

Investigators were seen wearing gloves and holding what appeared to be bags of evidence, including firearms. They also searched three vehicles — a blue sedan, a silver sedan and a blue SUV — parked outside the home, looking in the trunks and under the hoods. Investigators also took photographs of the vehicles.

Investigators loaded dozens of evidence boxes — including those that hold firearms — shortly before leaving the house at 5 p.m. The road was reopened at that time.

The New York State Police Benevolent Association, the union representing some 6,000 active and retired troopers across the state, said in a statement Monday: "We are monitoring this situation as it develops."

Mascia, 27, was shot in his right leg, near his knee, at about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday after he said he approached a black car, believed to be a Dodge Charger, that he thought was stranded on the median of the Southern State Parkway in West Hempstead, police have said.

No arrests have been made.

Mascia, a state trooper since 2019, was stable after having surgery Thursday, police have said.

He was released from Nassau University Medical Center on Friday afternoon as hundreds of state troopers and Nassau County police officers looked on.

"I'm feeling good," Mascia said Friday, as he was pushed in a wheelchair with his right leg bandaged.

State Police Superintendent Steven James, in a news briefing after Mascia was shot, described the alleged suspect as a male, driving what was believed to be a black, late model Dodge Charger with temporary New Jersey tags, rear tinted windows and custom matte gray dual-exhaust tips.

Mascia told police that he pulled up behind the vehicle and as he approached, "he heard several pops and realized he was wounded in his right leg," James said.

The superintendent said multiple shots were fired through the vehicle's lowered driver's side window. Mascia was hit with a .22-caliber gunshot in his right quadriceps near his knee, police said. Mascia retreated behind his patrol vehicle as the other vehicle fled west, he said.

James said Mascia didn't return fire because the suspect immediately fled the scene. The trooper was able to apply a tourniquet to his injured leg and called for assistance, the superintendent said.

Mascia's body camera was not activated until he pulled his gun from his holster after realizing he had been shot, James said. Therefore, no body camera footage exists of the shooting, James said.

"Shots fired, shots fired, I’m hit," the trooper said, giving his location on the parkway, according to police radio transmissions on Broadcastify.com that Newsday reported following the shooting.

"I’m bleeding pretty good in the leg," the trooper said, while also giving a description of the alleged shooter's vehicle and its temporary tag. "Got a tourniquet on."

The report from state police last week — that an armed suspect had fired several shots without provocation at a uniformed state trooper — created fear.

"Someone who is willing to fire a gun at a law enforcement officer is most certainly a dangerous individual," James said. "So in order to ensure the safety of the public, we would like to get that person in custody as soon as possible."

The New York City-based group Cop Shot announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

And Suffolk County Crime Stoppers had also offered a $5,000 reward.

Decades earlier, Mascia’s father, also named Thomas, a former NYPD officer, was fired from the NYPD in 1993 for selling cocaine, newspapers accounts, public and other records show.

A 1993 Newsday article reported the senior Mascia, who was assigned to the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, "was dismissed effective Feb. 10, the date he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine."

The article added: "Mascia, of West Hempstead, and four other New York City cops who live on Long Island were arrested by Suffolk County Police in May, 1992, and charged with buying cocaine while on duty and distributing it on Long Island."

Neighbors said state police have had a presence at Trooper Mascia’s home each day since the shooting, but on Sunday afternoon, investigators began knocking on doors in the surrounding neighborhood, asking questions.

Kenneth White, who lives six doors down from where police vehicles blocked the entrance into the cul-de-sac where the trooper lives, said state police detectives visited him Sunday afternoon to look at footage on his doorbell camera.

"They just said they’re looking for the car," White said from outside his home on Bedell Terrace. "That’s all they said."

White said that when he later noticed all the state police vehicles in the area, he assumed it was for Mascia’s return home from the hospital.

Neighbor James Ilori said Mascia is a "good man" who often lends a helping hand to others in the community.

"I trust him," Ilori said as he walked into a home across the street from the officer. "I believe him ... they’ll find the truth."

With Laura Mann and Anthony M. DeStefano