HORSEHEADS - A state police trooper was shot early Saturday morning in the abdomen during a traffic stop, and police were looking for his attacker.
Police were seeking Ralph “Buddy” Phillips, 43, as a person of interest in the shooting of trooper Sean Brown.
Phillips escaped from Alden Correctional Facility on April 2 with just four days of his sentence left to serve. He broke out by using a can opener to pry open a 2-foot by 2-foot opening in the kitchen ceiling and escaping through the roof, police said.
Phillips was in prison on a parole violation, but it was unclear late Saturday what type of criminal history he may have, the Erie County Sheriff's Office said.
Brown was in fair condition at St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira with a single gunshot wound. At a press conference Saturday, state police said Brown was out of surgery and able to talk about the incident.
Brown and his partner, Donald Will, were fired on several times as they walked toward a suspicious vehicle they had pulled over just before 1 a.m. in the town of Veteran, about 70 miles south of Syracuse.
The vehicle then drove off, according to state police in nearby Horseheads, just outside Elmira in Chemung County. The incident happened so quickly that the troopers didn't have time to call in a license plate number, state police Major Steven White said.
The shooting came three months after another state trooper, Andrew Sperr, 33, was shot and killed in a gun battle with two bank robbers in the same county. That shooting happened in Big Flats, about five miles west of Horseheads.
Police were asking the public Saturday for information on a dark-colored Ford Mustang, possibly with a convertible top and tinted windows, that was involved in the shooting.
Brown is stationed at Montour Falls in Schuyler County, about 13 miles north of Horseheads.
AP-ES-06-10-06 2036EDT
Phillips escaped from Alden Correctional Facility on April 2 with just four days of his sentence left to serve. He broke out by using a can opener to pry open a 2-foot by 2-foot opening in the kitchen ceiling and escaping through the roof, police said.
Phillips was in prison on a parole violation, but it was unclear late Saturday what type of criminal history he may have, the Erie County Sheriff's Office said.
Brown was in fair condition at St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira with a single gunshot wound. At a press conference Saturday, state police said Brown was out of surgery and able to talk about the incident.
Brown and his partner, Donald Will, were fired on several times as they walked toward a suspicious vehicle they had pulled over just before 1 a.m. in the town of Veteran, about 70 miles south of Syracuse.
The vehicle then drove off, according to state police in nearby Horseheads, just outside Elmira in Chemung County. The incident happened so quickly that the troopers didn't have time to call in a license plate number, state police Major Steven White said.
The shooting came three months after another state trooper, Andrew Sperr, 33, was shot and killed in a gun battle with two bank robbers in the same county. That shooting happened in Big Flats, about five miles west of Horseheads.
Police were asking the public Saturday for information on a dark-colored Ford Mustang, possibly with a convertible top and tinted windows, that was involved in the shooting.
Brown is stationed at Montour Falls in Schuyler County, about 13 miles north of Horseheads.
AP-ES-06-10-06 2036EDT
The Citizens' Say
There are No comments posted.