My shift on June 16, 2023, started like any other — routine and unremarkable. Initially, I thought a traffic stop I conducted on I-88, not far from State Police barracks in rural Duanesburg in Schenectady County, would be much the same.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Without warning, the passenger of the vehicle that I pulled over for speeding at 112 miles an hour fired a handgun out the window as I approached, hitting me in the shoulder. Though injured, I returned fire. The shootout sparked a chain-reaction crash by other motorists trying to avoid the scene. The shooter and passenger fled on foot and unsuccessfully tried to carjack another vehicle that had been disabled in the crash.

It was a chaotic and dangerous situation that ended with one suspect dying by suicide and the other taken into custody uninjured. The incident illustrated the unpredictable nature of law enforcement where things can go from normal to terribly wrong in a matter of minutes.

As members of law enforcement, we’re trained to take swift and necessary action to protect the........

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