DA: Farmingville Man Charged with Attempted Murder of Undercover Officer

A 21-year-old Farmingville man is charged with attempted murder of a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon and cocaine sale charges after he at an undercover officer Thursday night, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

Nicholas E. Hansen opened fire on a member of the Suffolk County District Attorney Heroin Task Force, after displaying approximately four ounces of cocaine to an undercover officer, as other officers moved in to arrest him.

Hansen fired a .38 caliber revolver at an undercover police officer on the north service road of the Long Island Expressway in Holbrook at a Mobil gas station. 

“This incident underscores the extraordinary risks police officers take and I am grateful they weren’t harmed during last night’s violence,” District Attorney Thomas Spota said in a statement.

Hansen emptied his handgun during the brief exchange of gun fire. His target, a New York State Police Investigator and 15 year police veteran, crouched near his vehicle less than 10 feet away, and was not hit, the district attorney’s office said.

Hansen was struck four times by the officer’s return fire and is in stable condition at Stony Brook University Medical Center. 

According to Spota’s office, the defendant will be charged with two A-1 felonies; attempted murder in the first degree and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, a class C felony, two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance second degree and one count of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree. 

The top charge of attempted murder of a police officer in the first degree is punishable by a maximum imprisonment of 40 years to life.