HUNTINGTON STATION, Long Island (PIX11) – A suspected shooter has been arrested and a Long Island police officer is in serious condition after he was shot twice during a late-night patrol in Huntington Station, officials said.
Officer Mark Collins “confronted evil but, fortunately, angels were on his side,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said at a 4 a.m. news conference Thursday.
Collins, a 12-year veteran of the force assigned to the Suffolk County Police Department’s gang unit, stopped a car carrying four people on Route 25 shortly before midnight Wednesday, police Commissioner Edward Webber said. Collins was on patrol in an unmarked police vehicle with two other officers at the time, Webber said.
When the car stopped, one of the passengers bolted from the vehicle and Collins ran after him. Soon after, the officer confronted the man, who opened fire, striking Collins in the neck and hip, Webber said, calling his officer a “hero.”
Both bullets went through Collins, a doctor at Stony Brook University Hospital, where the officer is being treated, said. The injuries could have been life-threatening, but Collins appears to be on his way to recovery.
Collins has a “very favorable prognosis” for recovery,
A manhunt was underway for about an hour before the suspected shooter was captured and arrested, Webber said. The alleged shooter’s name has not yet been released.
A portion of eastbound Jericho Turnpike and Route 110 has been closed as the investigation continues.
