A former New York state trooper who faked his own shooting during a Long Island traffic stop will serve just six months in jail, avoiding a potential multi-year prison sentence.
Thomas Mascia, 27, confessed to orchestrating a bogus ambush on October 30, 2024. He scattered shell casings on the Southern State Parkway in West Hempstead, then shot himself in the leg with a .22-caliber rifle before calling in backup, claiming a mysterious gunman had hit him. Mascia even described the “suspect” in chilling detail, a “dark-skinned man” in a balaclava who fled toward New York City in a car with temporary New Jersey plates.
The lie launched a frantic three-day manhunt that stretched across the tri-state area, wasting hundreds of hours of police time and putting Black and brown men in the region at serious risk. “Disturbing is putting it mildly,” one Redditor said. “He used the familiar ‘dark-skinned man’ trope to shift blame and risked the lives of anyone fitting the description.”
Six Months for a Fake Shooting, Five Years of Probation
As reported by Courthousenews, Mascia’s plea deal, finalized in Nassau County court this week, spares him the potential of a three-year prison sentence. Instead, he’ll serve six months in jail beginning August 20, pay $289,000 in restitution for the manhunt he triggered, and undergo mandatory mental health treatment as part of five years’ probation. His attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said Mascia was suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness at the time of the incident and is now receiving care…