PROBING COP'S FATAL SHOT

Police: Initial Clues Suggest Gun's Firing During Raid Was Accidental

After examining the submachine gun that discharged Friday night outside a
suspected drug house in Bellport and killed 20-year-old Jose Colon, and
interviewing the police officer who carried it, Suffolk police now say the
weapon was set on automatic fire.

They also say the three shots that rang out during the raid were fired when
Officer Tony Gonzalez inadvertently brushed the trigger. The findings
reinforce the department's initial conclusion that the shooting was
accidental, investigators said.

"If he had squeezed the trigger, a lot more rounds would have come out,"
Homicide Commander Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said yesterday.

Police had previously said the gun was set to fire three shots with a
single trigger squeeze.

Colon was killed when Gonzalez fired the weapon after being pushed forward
by an officer behind him who tripped over a tree root as the Emergency
Services team rushed the house about 10:30 p.m., Fitzpatrick said.

A shaken Gonzalez told police that night that he knew several rounds went
off but that he didn't remember taking his finger off the trigger rail, the
circular piece that surrounds the trigger and is designed to prevent
inadvertent firing.

At a police demonstration yesterday in Brentwood, Emergency Service officer
Glenn Bukowski fired off eight rounds in less than one second using a gun,
set on automatic fire, of the same model Gonzalez carried.

When set on automatic fire, the submachine gun fires at a rate of 800
rounds per minute, Fitzpatrick said.

Despite the discovery, police still insist only three shots were fired -
not as many as five, which some residents had claimed based on apparent
bullet holes in and around the front door.

The front door of the house was pinned back at the time of the raid and
showed evidence of two of the same rounds that traveled through the house's
outer wall, Fitzpatrick said.

Gonzalez has returned to work since the raid but has been reassigned to
desk duty pending the outcome of an investigation by the district
attorney's office, Fitzpatrick said.

One of the reasons for the high-risk entry, Fitzpatrick said, was police
had information that several loaded handguns and a loaded rifle might be
inside. Only the rifle was found, immediately inside the door.

The arrival of the police van set off a flurry of activity inside the
house, Fitzpatrick said.

Aaron Hatcher, 29, one of four arrested on charges of marijuana and weapons
possession, gave a statement to officers indicating that he ran for the
front door after seeing police arrive.

Hatcher, 29, exited first, followed by Colon, police said.

Colon's girlfriend, who has asked not to be identified by Newsday, told
police that she saw Hatcher and Colon leave the house. She also told them
she heard the officers call out to the two men to drop to the ground.

She watched as Hatcher dropped, she told police, and Colon continued standing.