Crime & Safety

Cops: Knife-Wielding Man Almost Gets To Feel Shot of a Taser

Montauk man had two knives at the ready, police say.

Police came close to shooting a Montauk man waving knives at them with a Taser on May 19.

East Hampton Town police said Andy M. Cuello-Gonzalez, 21, was ready to use the two knives he held in front of an officer at an apartment in Montauk. 

Police were called about an altercation involving a knife at an apartment on Duryea Avenue in Montauk at about 6:10 p.m. They found Cuello-Gonzalez in the apartment holding a large black handled knife with square stainless steel blade in his right hand, police said. Police ordered him to drop the knife, but he didn't. In a report, they said he was highly intoxicated.

Police said he became agitated and waved the knife around. Police aimed the Taser at Cuello-Gonzalez's chest, and his brother, who was in the room, tried to tell him to put the knife down. However, Cuello-Gonzalez picked up a second knife — with a black handle and a rounded stainless sell blade from the kitchen counter. Again, police ordered him to drop the knives or he would be shot with the Taser.

His brother was able to remove the rounded knife from the defendant's left hand, police said. Cuello-Gonzalez then seemed to notice the red laser Taser light on his chest, and discarded the square knife and followed the officer's commands to lie facedown on the floor with his hands out, they said.

Cuello-Gonzalez was charged with three counts of second-degree menacing and two counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, all misdemeanors. Held overnight, he was arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court the next day and released on $300 bail.

All town police officers carry Tasers as part of an initiative implemented earlier this year. Shift supervisors have carried them for at least six years and East Hampton Village Police Officers have carried them for just as long, town patrolmen were only recently certified in them when the town included funding in the 2013 budget to purchase enough Tasers for all on duty officers to have one.


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