Suffolk To Boost Police Response To Active Shootings: Bellone

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Suffolk County is making an effort to bolster the police response to active shooter scenarios.

The county will expand its Sharing to Help Access Remote Entry, or "S.H.A.R.E.," initiative, to include supermarkets and big box stores, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart announced at a news conference on Tuesday. The announcement comes following at least 50 mass shootings in the United States since March 16, News 12 reported — not including Tuesday's West Hempstead Stop & Shop shooting.

S.H.A.R.E., originally created for school districts, will allow supermarkets and big box stores to connect existing closed circuit television camera systems directly to Suffolk police's Real Time Crime Center for free. The cameras would only be activated by the department in emergency and potentially dangerous situations, police said. This would allow the department to work with businesses and would provide critical information to officers to better protect Suffolk residents.

The S.H.A.R.E. program was originally announced in 2019 at West Babylon High School, according to Bellone. The program provides police the ability to see inside that school at a moment's notice. The cameras' lifesaving potential led the county to introduce them to supermarkets, big-box retailers and shopping centers.

"Because as we’ve seen in places like Colorado and other places, these shootings happen anywhere, and as we reach out to these big box retailers, supermarkets, and sign them up into the program, the police department will have the ability to see inside those stores if, God forbid, an active shooter situation arises, to be able to see outside those stores, as well, utilizing those cameras, so that those responding officers can have the best information possible as they are reacting to this situation," Bellone stated. "That’s one of the best things we can do to help save lives in an active shooter situation like that."

The Suffolk County Police Department regularly conducts active shooter drills to train officers in a variety of locations and scenarios, police said.

The announcement came as Nassau police responded to a Stop & Shop in West Hempstead for a report of a shooting at 11:19 a.m. Tuesday. Shots were fired at the supermarket at 50 Cherry Valley Ave. Three people were shot, and a 49-year-old man was killed, Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said.

Police are searching for 30-year-old Gabriel DeWitt Wilson in connection to the shooting. Police say he is a black man, 6 feet, 2 inches tall and was wearing a black baseball cap and a black sweatshirt.

"There are many things that have changed over time since I’ve been county executive; the world is a very rapidly changing place now," Bellone said. "One of the things that has remained consistent is the epidemic of mass shootings in this country. It is beyond disturbing. We have seen shootings in our schools in movie theatres, in shopping centers and supermarkets, everywhere across this country. It’s one of the things that keeps me up at night as a county executive — that we can have one of these shootings here in our community, on Long Island. We are the only country in this world where this epidemic of violence and mass shootings takes place. It is disgraceful, it is disturbing, and it has to end. We have to take action. We need action down in Washington, finally, on this issue."