Justin Angell, 20, responded with the Bellmore Volunteer Fire Department colleagues to a 911 call for a pickup truck that crashed into a utility pole on Bellmore Avenue shortly before 10 p.m. when the driver,whose name police have not released, shot the victim.
Angell, who collapsed on a nearby lawn, was taken to Nassau University Medical Center where he is being treated for non-life threatening injuries. The suspect then opened fire on police officers before being gunned down, police said.
“It was clear to us that this man was out to commit mayhem somewhere in this county,” Mulvey said.
Click here to see pictures of the suspects weapons
Police only described the suspect as a 31-year-old Suffolk County resident who just recently moved to Long Island from Florida and may be married with a young child.
“To everyone … thank u so much for the calls concerns and visits … just got up and walked a bit,” said part of a message on Angell’s Facebook page.
A K-9 officer who responded after the EMTs to the crash retreated behind his car after he “noticed the laser sights of a firearm with a long rifle honing in on him,” Mulvey said. The gunman shot at Seventh Precinct officers as well. The officers were not hit by the gunfire.
As officers returned fire, the K-9 officer shot and killed the suspect through the passenger side window of the suspect’s vehicle, Mulvey said.
The suspect fired at least eight shots and had ammunition strapped to his forearm, Mulvey said. He also had a long rifle with a scope strapped across his chest. In his pocket was a small semi-automatic pistol, a long-barreled revolver on his lap and a Tec-9 within easy reach on the floor behind the passenger seat of the car.
Mulvey said the gunman “may have some turmoil in his personal life.”
Detective Lt. John Azzata of the Homicide Squad said the suspect had a minor arrest record but had nothing on his record that is “as violent as what occurred.”
It hasn’t yet been determined where the weapons came from, police said.
Police declined to speculate on the suspect’s motives. The commissioner said “He might have had the intention of leaving that vehicle at some point because of the number of weapons, and the way they were arranged on his body.”