Calls For More Police In LI Precinct As Suffolk Cop Shot Signals 'Boiling Point'

CORAM, NY — The shooting of an anti-crime/gang unit officer during a confrontation with an alleged gang member wanted for robbery in Coram has prompted calls for Suffolk County to devote more police resources to the area.

Coram Civic Association President Kareem Nugdalla, among others, said increased crime in the Coram area has been reaching "a boiling point" that lead to the officer's shooting.

"It's not a shock to me that it has become violent," he said in an interview.

Officer Michael Lafauci was part of a team surveilling Janell Funderburke when he was shot on Homestead Drive Thursday afternoon, police said. Lafauci spotted Funderburke, who was wanted for a robbery a couple of days prior, and when he approached him, Funderburke bolted, and then drew his weapon, wounding Lafauci, according to police.

Fellow officers applied a series of tourniquets to control the bleeding, saving Lafauci's life. He later underwent surgery to remove bullet fragments and is now in stable condition at Stony Brook University Hospital.

Suffolk Legis. Dominick Thorne, a Republican from Patchogue who represents the area, said he thanks "God" that no one is going to a funeral.

Thorne, who is serving his first two-year term, said he has focused his office on quality-of-life issues and has worked to improve the area, along with the police department, making strides since coming into office in January 2022.

He called the criminal element in the area a shame and noted some residents are terrified.

Residents in the Coram area have long battled with quality-of-life issues like vagrancy, prostitution, drug dealers, smash-and-grabs, and vandalism.

There used to be a joke that you could tell was 10 p.m. without looking a the clock because you would hear all the car alarm beeps from people who forgot to lock their cars.

But violent incidents have increased over the years, some say.

Coram has seen two violent sexual attacks, including one on a 14-year-old girl, and the other, a woman walking on a trail.

The teenager was attacked by a 33-year-old man inside of an apartment complex in 2019, Patch previously reported.

The woman was dragged into a wooded area of a preserve and raped by a "violent sexual predator," in 2021, authorities said at the time.

In April 2022, a 35-year-old man shot a 14-year-old boy and wounded himself in an argument at a strip mall, police said.

Then in October, teenager Tyler Phillips died after he was struck and mortally injured in Medford by a vehicle that fled the scene.

Later that month, a woman was shot to death near Taino's off of Middle Country Road.

The next month in November, a man was arrested for sexually abusing two boys at Gordon Heights Children's Park.

The area also has been no stranger to seeing officers injured on the job.

In December 2022, two officers were stabbed in an altercation with a suspect at an apartment complex in Medford. The man was shot in the struggle and later died.

Some incidents have not been reported in the news, and some even occurring in broad daylight, Nugdalla says.

Nugdalla says he believes that part of the problem stems from the county placing a satellite location for the probation department, and people are refusing to seek help from social services, so they remain on the street.

Another is that it is difficult for officers to enforce the affidavit of trespass program, which keeps vagrants from entering vacant properties. Landlords must sign an affidavit to allow police to make an arrest for trespassing, so without it, there is little that can be done to keep them off.

Many of the properties do not have the documents because absentee landlords are involved.

The issues have been creeping up over the years, but despite the need, more law enforcement resources have not deployed to the hamlet, says Nugdalla, adding that it "is sickening" when you take into consideration the amount of money that is spent elsewhere.

Coram is covered by the 6th Precinct in Selden, stretching from the Setauket area in the west to Mount Sinai across the north, and from Coram, Medford, Holtsville, and Farmingville in the south.

"It's crazy the landmass these guys got to cover," Nugdalla said, adding, "It's not a shock to me."

Thorne says there are statistics showing that the 6th Precinct has the top amount of calls but is only number four for manpower across the county.

Statistics showing the top staffed precinct in the county were not immediately available.

Thorne said he was outraged by the shooting and that he has requested County Executive Steve Bellone's office deploy more officers. Bellone told him his office would pull the statistics to see if that could be done, according to Thorne.

"I don't care how it's done -- just go and fix it," he said.

Suffolk Police Benevolent Association President Noel DiGerolamo said he "couldn't agree more" with a call for more resources at the precinct.

"I recognize the fiscal restraints of any organization, however, government has an obligation to provide resources and the most important of those resources is public safety," he said. "We have seen an incredible increase of service-needed response from the police department in the 6th Precinct over any other in the past seven years. Those needs have not been addressed and should have been recognized prior to this. This only further exemplifies what we've been talking about for the past several years."

DiGerolamo says the county has not increased staffing numbers based on increased population and crime statistics in decades and it "has come to a boiling point, and we now have seen the result."

"I'm not blaming our department or our elected officials for this shortcoming, but I'm blaming the historical response of Suffolk County's police department and government to these needs," he said. "The phrase, 'Do more with less,' does not work when people are overdosing and killed and police officers are being shot."

Bellone's office referred any request for comment to the police department.

In a statement to Patch, Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said that the allocation of resources in police precincts is constantly under review," noting that "officers assigned to the precincts are deployed based on multiple factors including call volume, crime trends and nature of calls."

He explained that in the 6th Precinct, additional officers are assigned to Port Jefferson Village to respond to the increase of people frequenting the village in the summer months, and last year, the officers were redeployed to Coram after Labor Day "to address community concerns."

"In addition to officers on patrol, Community Support Unit officers are assigned to that area," he said. "Anti-crime officers also frequent the area to address various issues. Recently, a steady post was re-instituted to the Coram bus stop to address concerns at that location."

The department will continue to examine staffing, according to Harrison.

Thorne was not happy with the commissioner's response though.

"I don't care about the politics of it," he said. "I have people who are scared to death to go and get a gallon of milk for their kid. You can look at it; look at it again; look at it sideways. It needs to be done now. That's unacceptable."

Likewise, Nugdalla.

He said he gets it that officials are trying to make a difference, but residents would like to see more results and less lost in the shuffle.

"We are not looking to be Garden City," he said. "We are just looking to be better than what we are."