Man Arrested on Criminal Possession of Weapons Charges
On Aug. 12, the Tuckahoe Police Department arrested Matthew Bonanno, 47, of Great Neck, for multiple criminal possession of weapons charges. The arrest resulted from an investigation into a report that the defendant had made threats against his estranged wife, a Westchester resident, and her family. The police were contacted by someone who heard the threats and believed the defendant to be armed. Tuckahoe Police responded to the defendant’s location, Growler’s Beer Bistro on Main Street, Tuckahoe, where he was found to be illegally in possession of a loaded Glock semi-automatic handgun. He was taken into custody without incident.
A subsequent search of his vehicle led to the recovery of five fully loaded assault rifles with high capacity magazines, three handguns, 29 high-capacity loaded magazines, over 1600 rounds of ammunition, a stun gun, heavy ballistic body armor and helmet, handcuffs, full head cover face masks, multiple military style knives, four brass knuckles, pepper spray fogger, and scopes, binoculars and other paraphernalia.
The Tuckahoe Police Department working closely with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office obtained search warrants for the defendant’s known residences, one in the Town of Mount Pleasant and one in Great Neck.
Three additional unlicensed handguns were recovered in Mount Pleasant. The residence in Long Island yielded another large cache of assault rifles, shotgun, handguns, high capacity magazines, body armor, hundreds of rounds ammunition, smoke grenades and other weapons. Those weapons were turned over to the Nassau County Police Department.
The defendant was arraigned by Village Justice David O. Fuller on Aug. 13, and remanded without bail to the Westchester County Jail to await his next court appearance Tuesday, Aug. 20, in Tuckahoe Village Court.
The investigation is ongoing.
