'Preliminary Assessment' Underway After Fatal Officer-Involved Shooting Of Stabbing Suspect On LI: AG

LONG ISLAND, NY — The Office of Special Investigation is conducting a preliminary assessment into the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting by police officers of a stabbing suspect in a confrontation on Long Island on Sunday morning, a spokesperson from state Attorney General Leticia James said.

If the office decides to open an investigation, an announcement will be made at a later time, according to James' office.

Emilson Yoan Ordonez-Vanegas, a 29-year-old whose last address is unknown, was shot after he emerged from a wooded area, yelling and holding a knife over his head near a man who was being treated for a stab wound on his neck on Sunday morning, Suffolk police said.

One officer fired, striking Ordonez-Vanegas, and he was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police.

James' office was notified of the shooting as part of the standard protocol with police-involved shootings.

Homicide Squad detectives and Internal Affairs Bureau are also investigating, as part of the police department's procedure.

The department's Public Information Bureau declined to comment on the AG's preliminary assessment.

The Office of Special Investigations has investigative authority and criminal jurisdiction when an officer, has caused a death, or when there is a question whether an officer has caused a death, but at the time the office is notified of an incident it is not always clear whether the three elements – a death, a defined officer, and causation – are present, according to James' spokesperson.

The "vast majority" of notifications received by the OSI "clearly" involve a death and a defined officer, and when the third element of causation is not initially clear, the office calls its investigations preliminary assessments, though they often take months to complete, the spokesperson said.

When the OSI closes a case after a preliminary assessment because it does not find causation, the OSI sends a letter, to the district attorney for the county in which the incident took place, informing the district attorney that a preliminary assessment shows that the Attorney General does not have investigative authority or criminal jurisdiction in the matter, according to James' office.

At that point, jurisdiction would revert to the district attorney, in this case Suffolk DA Ray Tierney.

But when the OSI has a case where it is clear from the start that an officer has caused a death, such as a shooting case, or where the OSI’s preliminary assessment establishes that an officer has caused a death, the OSI pursues a full investigation, James' office said.

At the conclusion of the investigation, the OSI must either present evidence to a grand jury to seek an indictment, or issue a public report detailing the investigation and its results and explaining why the OSI did not present evidence to a grand jury, according to James' office.

The OSI must also issue an Investigation Report if it presents evidence to a grand jury and the grand jury does not return an indictment, her office said.

Officers from the 6th Precinct in Selden were initially responding to the scene at a strip mall on Middle Country Road in Centereach just before 9 a.m. after a 911 caller reported a disturbance involving a weapon, and found a 44-year-old man stabbed in the neck, police said.

The man was taken to a local hospital, as well as two officers for treatment of tinnitus, according to a police spokesperson.

Editor's Note: This story has been edited to reflect an update from police with the correct spelling of Emilson Yoan Ordonez-Vanegas' name. It was misspelled in the previous version.