'He was ambushed': Asking why a Salina man killed 2 officers, laying out the timeline
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The shootout in a quiet suburban neighborhood Sunday night that killed two officers is being described as an ambush by law enforcement officials.
According to officials, 33-year-old Christopher Murphy shot and killed Onondaga County Sheriff's Deputy Lt. Michael Hoosock and Syracuse Police Officer Michael Jensen Sunday evening on Darien Drive in the Town of Salina.
Officers killed in line of duty identified as seasoned deputy and young police officer
The timeline established by law enforcement shows it took about an hour and a half for an attempted traffic stop to end in Onondaga County's first fatal shooting of law enforcement officers in over 30 years. Just after 7 p.m., Syracuse Police Chief Joseph Cecile said that Officer Jensen and a partner identified a Grey Honda Civic they deemed suspicious; that car took off at about 100mph, but not before police had recorded the car's license plate. Knowing the car had gone north, police contacted the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office for assistance.
Veteran Deputy Lt. Hoosock responded on his own initiative; in fact, Sheriff Toby Shelley said that he was the one to find the car on Darien Drive. It's now about 8:24 p.m. Syracuse Police are told the car has been found, and Officer Jensen and his partner join Lt. Hoosock and two other deputies at the scene. A spokesperson for the Syracuse Police Department said that the shooting began just two minutes after their officers arrived.
According to Chief Cecile, the officers had heard the sound of someone "racking" a gun inside the residence. The officers established a perimeter around the home, with Lt. Hoosock heading to the backyard of a neighbor's home, hiding behind a maple tree.
At around 8:48 p.m., there's a dispatch indicating shots are being fired. Sheriff Shelley says this was an ambush, with Murphy allegedly going to his back deck and firing at Lt. Hoosock with a Springfield AR-15, a military-style rifle. After striking Lt. Hoosock, Murphy went around to the front, shooting and hitting Officer Jensen. Chief Cecile said that Officer Jensen and others returned fire, striking Murphy. All three were pronounced dead at Upstate University Hospital that night.
A video recording from a neighbor shows a barrage of bullets, with deafening unbroken gunfire lasting for about ten seconds. It appears to have been taken when Murphy moved to the street, ending with officers kneeling on someone's body in the road with another body in the driveway of Murphy's residence. Some neighboring houses across the street from that residence have multiple bullet holes in them, though the front of Murphy's house appears unscathed from the road.
According to neighbors, Murphy lived there with his parents who are currently out of town. Onondaga County tax records show that two others with the last name Murphy own the home. He graduated from Liverpool High School in 2008; some neighbors, indicating they had known him for years, were at a complete loss trying to understand why he turned to this kind of violence. The last time he was involved with law enforcement was a DWI in 2014.
“There's something in his past that may be an indicator into why he did it, I’m not going to go into it now,” Chief Cecile said at a press conference Monday afternoon.
Onondaga County District Attorney, live with CNY Central Monday evening, shared further details about what may have been going on inside the residence. According to Fitzpatrick, Murphy was using cocaine along with a friend. That friend was arrested unharmed in the backyard, attempting to hop the fence. He has not been charged with a crime so far, according to Sheriff Shelley.
“He was inside doing cocaine with a friend He told the friend to get out of the house. Something was going to be going down," Fitzpatrick said.