FATAL SHOOTING OF SUFFOLK MAN WAS AN ACCIDENT, POLICE SAY

A Suffolk County police officer accidentally shot and killed a 20-year-old
man during a botched drug raid Friday night, the police said.

The shooting occurred at 10:40 p.m., the police said, as officers from the
Police Department's emergency services division prepared to raid a house in
Bellport, N.Y., where they believed drugs were being sold by armed dealers.

As a group of four officers neared the front door, the police said, two men
opened the door and walked out. The officer leading the raid, who was
carrying a 9-millimeter submachine gun, stopped short. The officer behind
him tripped over a tree root and bumped into the lead officer, setting off
his gun, the police said.

Three shots were fired from the gun, and one hit Jose Colon, 20, in the
head, said Detective Lt. John N. Fitzpatrick, commander of the Suffolk
County Police Department's homicide squad. Mr. Colon was pronounced dead
early Saturday morning at a nearby hospital.

At a news conference Saturday, police officials apologized to Mr. Colon's
family. "This was completely an unintentional act and a tragic mistake,"
Lieutenant Fitzpatrick said yesterday. The homicide squad and internal
affairs bureau are investigating and will report their findings to the
Suffolk County district attorney's office, he added.

Mr. Colon was mourned yesterday at the Victory Church of God in East
Patchogue, where his family attends services and his uncle is a pastor.

"Everybody was crying in church," said Adrian Ramdoo, a relative of Mr.
Colon's and a member of the church. "I broke down and cried today myself."
Mr. Colon's grandfather, Charles Seaton, said his grandson had been
studying draftsmanship and photography at Briarcliffe College on Long
Island and was working in graphic design.

Lieutenant Fitzpatrick said yesterday that just before the gun went off,
officers had asked Mr. Colon and the other man who stepped outside,
identified as Aaron Hatcher, 20, to drop to the ground. Mr. Hatcher had
complied, the lieutenant said, but Mr. Colon had not. "He was still moving
down the steps toward the officers," the lieutenant said. "If he's moving
toward them, they're not going to continue to rush him, which probably led
to the lead man stopping."

Mr. Colon did not have weapons or drugs with him, the lieutenant said.

The police would not identify the officer whose gun discharged yesterday,
but Newsday reported that he is Tony Gonzalez, a 14-year veteran of the
Police Department.

In the raid, the police recovered at least eight ounces of marijuana and a
loaded semiautomatic rifle from the house, Lieutenant Fitzpatrick said, and
arrested four men on charges of second-degree marijuana possession. The
police said no one lived at the house. Aside from the men arrested and the
drugs seized, the police found little more inside than a pit bull and a chair.