Officer-Involved Shooting in Harrison Ruled Accidental by County Police
The Westchester County Department of Public Safety recently completed an extensive investigation into an officer-involved shooting in October and concluded that a Harrison police lieutenant who shot a burglary suspect fired his weapon accidentally.
Commissioner George N. Longworth said in a press release that county police detectives recently turned their findings over to the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office for its review.
Longworth noted that all 11 Harrison police officers who were at the scene, including the lieutenant who fired his weapon, cooperated fully in the investigation. A motorist who was driving nearby when the incident occurred was also interviewed.
On Oct. 17, 2012, at about 6:30 p.m., Harrison police stopped a vehicle on the Exit 10 off ramp connecting eastbound Interstate 287 to Westchester Avenue. Harrison officers were making the felony traffic stop to take three men into custody who were suspects in a series of violent home invasion robberies and burglaries in Harrison and elsewhere in the region.
As officers approached the suspects’ vehicle, Lt. Vito Castellano discharged two rounds from a department-issued LMT Guardian 2000 .223 caliber rifle. Castellano was approaching the rear passenger-side door when his weapon discharged.
On the night of the incident, Harrison police requested that the Westchester County Police Forensic Investigation Unit collect all physical evidence at the scene. It also requested that the county police conduct the investigation into the officer-involved shooting.
Among the key findings of the investigation:
Both rounds that Castellano fired went through the suspect vehicle’s rear passenger window and through the front passenger seat. One of the rounds passed through the seat intact and exited through the front driver’s side window. The other round struck the framework inside the passenger seat and shattered into three fragments. One of the bullet fragments struck the driver in the shoulder; another fragment struck Harrison Detective Stephen Barrone in the chest, lodging in his bullet-resistant vest.
County police ballistics experts determined that the path that the bullets traveled indicates that the rifle was being held in a holding position near the waist, not in a shouldered position that would be used to engage a hostile target.
“The evidence indicates that Lt. Castellano fired his weapon accidentally and not intentionally,” Longworth said.
