Police: Truck Driver Caught Naked And Waving Machete In L.I. Parking Lot
LAKE GROVE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A man was arrested on Long Island Monday, after police claimed he was seen going around naked threatening people with a machete in a Costco parking lot.
Several witnesses reported a naked man waving a machete in the parking lot at 3000 Middle Country Rd. in Lake Grove around 1:05 p.m., Suffolk County police said.
The man then allegedly barricaded himself in the cab of a 2007 Freightliner semi-trailer truck that he had been driving for NYC Transport of East Orange, New Jersey.
Two police sergeants– Keith Serper and Brian Michels – and four officers – Richard Regula, Christopher Tenbrink, Anthony Sepe, and Jean Hutchinson – rushed to the scene, police said. But the man initially refused to get out of the truck, police said.
When the man tried to get out of the truck with machete in hand, officers held the doors shut to contain them, police said. But the man opened a small window and tried to get out through it, while threatening the officers with the machete, police said.
Police: Truck Driver Caught Naked And Waving Machete In L.I. Parking Lot
Officers Regula and Tenbrink and sergeant Serper got close enough to use a Taser on the suspect, police said. Afterward, police entered the cab, subdued the suspect, and arrested him, police said.
The suspect – identified as Jose Amaya, 37 – was charged with menacing a police officer, criminal possession of a controlled substance, and criminal possession of a weapon, police said. Police said Amaya lived in the truck cab.
Amaya was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook for evaluation, police said.
