“It could have gone worse. We’re lucky that I have officers here that weren’t shot,” said Police Chief Jeff Erickson at Friday’s East Hampton Village Board meeting. Chief Erickson was recognizing Sgt. Wayne Gauger and Officers John Clark and Robbie Greene for a traffic stop on Aug. 31 that turned into a scuffle and the eventual confiscation of an illegal gun.
Officer Clark was on routine patrol when he saw a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee committing “multiple” traffic infractions as it drove along Main Street. He pulled it over, and “upon approaching, observed what appeared to be an A.R.-style rifle lying on the rear floor of the vehicle,” Chief Erickson told the board.
Officer Clark called for assistance. When Sergeant Gauger and Officer Greene arrived, the three asked the driver to exit his vehicle.
He “resisted,” and “that resistance led to a brief struggle,” in which the officers observed the defendant reaching, several times, for his waistband. They managed to handcuff him, and when they searched him they found a loaded 9-millimeter handgun.
“As a result of these officers’ actions, an illegal handgun was taken off the streets. We’re not used to that in East Hampton,” Chief Erickson told the village board. Each of the three men was awarded a plaque.
The driver was arraigned in Riverhead on Sept. 6 and charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, but is out on $5,000 bail. His next court date is Nov. 26.
In other police news, Chief Erickson announced the promotion of Ed Reid to detective, taking over the spot vacated by Chris Hansen, who retired earlier this month after 20 years of service. “We’re kind of bringing him home,” the chief said of Mr. Reid. He explained that the force’s newest detective was originally hired by the village in 2011 as a dispatcher, but was later hired by Southampton Village after he graduated from the Suffolk County Police Academy. East Hampton hired him back in the summer of 2023.
While he bemoaned the Civil Service process, calling it “convoluted” and “exhausting,” Chief Erickson nonetheless was successful in hiring two new police officers, James Fusco and Jack Brierly. Both are local men. Mr. Fusco graduated from Pierson High School in 2010 and is a resident of Wainscott. Mr. Brierly, who graduated from East Hampton High School in 2016, “comes from a family of first responders.”