One of two Suffolk County police officers stabbed to death Wednesday during a fatal encounter with a Medford man has been discharged from the hospital, police said Friday.
The officer, who was not identified by police, was stabbed through his bulletproof vest near his heart where the knife struck a rib, a doctor at Stony Brook University Hospital told reporters Thursday.
“Getting stabbed right over the heart, that’s through a vest and it hit a rib and it didn’t go any further, that really saved that officer’s life,” said Dr. James Vosswinkle, head of trauma at Stony Brook.
The officer, who has been on duty for 11 months and is also an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, was also stabbed in his left bicep and thumb.
Suffolk Police said Enrique Lopez, who lived in a home run by a non-profit organization for people with disabilities and mental health problems, was shot dead after lunging at three police officers and stabbing two of them.
Another officer is on a ventilator after being stabbed in the collarbone and groin and left with “life-threatening injuries,” Vosswinkle said. Police did not offer an update on the officer’s condition on Friday. This officer has not been identified.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said Thursday that three Sixth Circuit officers responded to an 911 call around 5 p.m. Wednesday at an apartment in the Blue Ridge Condominium Complex on Birchwood Road in Medford where 56-year-old Lopez was reportedly staying other fire extinguishers threatened with a fire.
Officers entered the home, walked up a flight of stairs and approached Lopez, Harrison said, and “asked him how he was feeling.”
“At that point, the same suspect pulled out a Rambo knife and launched himself at the other officers,” Harrison said. “The officers repeatedly asked him to drop the knife as they tried to retreat for cover. As our subject lunged at the officers, he stabbed one of the officers in the collarbone.”
One of the officers fired four rounds at the suspect, Harrison said, punching him in the chest. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:15 p.m., the commissioner said.
The police could not say which officer fired the fatal shot.
Harrison said investigators are reviewing reports that neighbors have made numerous calls to the Homeowners Association and the police about Lopez’s alleged history of erratic behavior.
Online court records show that Lopez, who previously resided in East Patchogue, was charged with assault in February 2011. He later pleaded guilty and served two years in prison, followed by 15 months of probation, parole department records show.
Harrison said the 2011 arrest of Lopez involved the assault of a Suffolk County police officer, and court records show he was charged with resisting arrest during that incident.
Police investigators will also try to determine if Lopez was behind recent vandalism, including slashed tires, in the area, Harrison said.
The home where Lopez lived is operated by a nonprofit agency called Concern Housing, which provides services to people with disabilities and mental health issues. Officers were approached by a case worker who cared for mentally ill patients at the home, and said the man “acted violently and irrationally, threatening other inpatients with a fire extinguisher,” Harrison said.
Elizabeth Lunde, chief operating officer of Medford-based Concern Housing, said in a statement Thursday, “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Suffolk County Police Officers” and their families… We are conducting a thorough investigation and are working with police and other officials. ”
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