Grand Jury Clears Police in Shooting of New Paltz Man
An Ulster County grand jury cleared a police officer of any wrong doing in the shooting of a New Paltz man who later died.
According to the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, the grand jury found the unnamed police officer’s actions to be lawfully justified and determined there was no cause for criminal action against the officer who deployed the use of deadly physical force.
On October 24, 2015, New Paltz Police responded to a report of a domestic violence at John Tozzi’s apartment on Route 32 in New Paltz.
As officers from New Paltz and the Ulster County Sherrif’s office approached the apartment they were met with gunfire. The first rifle shot fired by Tozzi narrowly missed officers as they retreated from the porch.
During the next several hours, police from multiple agencies including the New York State Police, the Plattekill Police, the Town of Newburgh Police, Rosendale Police and Lloyd Police surrounded the Tozzi residence in hopes of getting him to surrender.
Tozzi continued to engage police with rifle fire striking four vehicles that police were using for cover.
As the standoff continued, Tozzi fired at officers that were pinned down near his residence. A New Paltz Police Officer returned fire hitting Tozzi once in the chest area.
Tozzi was located in his apartment and medevacked to Westchester Medical Center in critical condition.
Prior to his death, The District Attorney’s Office had planned to file charges against him to include at least 9 counts of attempted Murder and related weapons charges.
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