GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York prosecutor says no criminal charges will be filed in a friendly fire shooting that killed a police officer on Long Island.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice says in a report issued Tuesday that her office investigated the March 2011 shooting of Officer Geoffrey Breitkopf. He was killed by a police officer from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority who apparently mistook him for a possible suspect.
Rice calls the shooting unquestionably tragic, but says criminal charges would be unsustainable.
Breitkopf was a member of the elite Bureau of Special Operations. He was in street clothes, with a rifle slung under his arm, when he was shot.
The shooting happened moments after other Nassau County officers had shot and killed an emotionally disturbed man in Massapequa (mas'-uh-PEEK'-wuh) Park.
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