Arraignment Set for Man Accused of Shooting Cop in Huntington Station

The 22-year-old suspect in the recent shooting of a Suffolk County police officer in Huntington Station is scheduled for arraignment of grand jury charges Friday in Riverhead, authorities said.

Held without bail, Sheldon Leftenant is to be arraigned at 12 p.m. in the Riverhead criminal courthouse, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.

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Leftenant is an an alleged member of the Huntington Station street gang known as “Tip Top Boyz,” officials say. He was charged last week in the shooting of Mark Collins, a 35-year-old police officer assigned to the Suffolk police department’s gang unit.

A decorated 12-year Suffolk police veteran, Collins, of North Bellmore, was released from the hospital on Sunday and is now undergoing physical therapy as he recovers from gunshot wounds, officials said.

Collins was in an unmarked police vehicle on March 11 when he pulled over a car with four people inside. As Collins and two other officers approached the vehicle, a man inside the car got out and confronted Collins, shooting the 12-year veteran twice, once in the neck and once in the hip, police said.

Leftenant, of 7 Tippin Drive Huntington Station, was arrested an hour after the shooting. His handgun was recovered by police from a backyard near the scene of the crime, according to officials.

SCPD Photo of Sheldon Leftenant

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