FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT
DATE: FEBRUARY 17, 2016
RE: PRESS RELEASE – JOHN TOZZI
On October 24, 2015 officers of the New Paltz Police Department went to the apartment of John Tozzi at Route 32 South in the Town of New Paltz in response to a domestic violence complaint filed earlier that evening. As one of the officers approached the door to the apartment his partner observed, through a window, a man approaching the door with a gun. Just as the officer called out to his partner the occupant, John Tozzi, fired one round from a high powered rifle, which round went through the metal door where the officer had been standing a moment before.
Multiple officers arrived at the Tozzi residence. From his barricaded position inside, Tozzi fired at least eight more rounds at officers as they took cover crouched behind their cars. Three separate police vehicles were struck. During the stand-off, as Tozzi approached a back window, an officer returned fire firing one round which struck Tozzi in the chest. He was taken to a Westchester County hospital where he remained until approximately two weeks ago when he was transferred to a local medical facility. His condition deteriorated and, earlier this week, he died.
At the direction of and in cooperation with this office, no criminal charges were filed against Tozzi. Instead, I advised the agencies involved that this office was preparing a presentation to the Ulster County Grand Jury seeking an indictment for multiple counts of Attempted Murder in the first degree (murder of a police officer) against Tozzi. The reason for not filing the charges before the Grand Jury presentation was simply a practical one. Once charges are filed against a defendant that individual becomes the responsibility of the arresting agency. Here it would have become necessary to post around the clock security at the hospital. In addition, I am advised that potentially, expenses regarding medical procedures following arrest could become the responsibility of the county. Given Mr. Tozzi’s condition and the fact that he was not medically able to leave the hospital, I suggested that we delay the filing of the criminal charges pending the Grand Jury indictment and we have been monitoring Mr. Tozzi’s medical condition.
It has been the policy of this office to present police officer related shooting incidents to the Grand Jury and it is our intent to do so in this instance as well. That matter has not yet been scheduled. The fact that that case will be presented to the Grand Jury in no way reflects an opinion one way or the other regarding any wrong doing. Parenthetically, at the time of this incident, the New York State Attorney General’s Office was advised of the circumstances.