State trooper shoots woman

Police: She threatened suicide, pointed gun at them

A trooper shot a woman in the abdomen with a shotgun Thursday after State Police say she pointed a firearm at troopers.

Troopers were responding to a report of a woman who threatened suicide at about 10:30 a.m. at a home on State Route 22 in New Lebanon, a rural Columbia County community along the Massachusetts border.

Two troopers responded, and during their interaction with the 40-year-old, the police allege she pointed a long gun at the troopers. One of the troopers shot her with his police-issue shotgun.

The woman was taken to Albany Medical Center by ambulance where she was in stable condition as of Friday afternoon, according to State Police spokesman Aaron J. Hicks.

The woman, who was alone when troopers arrived, is not facing charges at this time, but the investigation is on-going, Hicks added. He would not say how police were first called to the scene.

The scene of the shooting, about a mile up the road from the New Lebanon Junior/ Senior High School, was quiet Friday afternoon, and no one responded to a knock at the door. A minivan sat in the driveway.

Neighbor Ralph Stall said he was driving home from work in Pittsfield, Mass., at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday when he passed the victim’s house and saw a female state trooper outside the home with a shotgun.

Stall continued on to his home, which is several hundred feet away from the victim’s, and turned on his police scanner to hear of the shooting.

Stall did not know the neighbors, who he

said had moved in about 6 months ago, but said they were a couple with at least one school-aged child.

Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka said Friday afternoon his office is currently handling the investigation in conjunction with the New York State Attorney

General’s Office. He has been in contact with an assistant New York attorney general from the onset, Czajka said, and the prosecutor was at the scene Thursday along with local investigators.

The state attorney general’s office has become increasingly involved with investigations into shootings by police and earlier this year was given expanded powers to investigate such shootings.

The State Police released the names of the two troopers involved in the incident late Thursday: Trooper Nathaniel Chernewsky, who fired the shotgun, and Trooper Erica Rodriguez.

Neither was injured, according to police.

Chernewsky has been with the State Police less than two years, while Rodriguez has been with the troopers for three years.