A Suffolk County police officer who was critically injured by an alleged carjacker who struck him while fleeing a traffic stop last month was released from Stony Brook University Hospital on Friday.
Officer Nicholas Guerrero, 36, had been recovering since undergoing a neurosurgical procedure in the Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit a day after the incident, police have said.
Guerrero and his partner had stopped a Ford Explorer that had been reported stolen from Commack when the driver, 34-year-old Chad Morizsan of Northport, allegedly fled the scene, hitting the two officers while they tried to talk to the suspects on Partridge Lane in Huntington at 11 a.m. Sept. 22, authorities have said.
Guerrero was then airlifted to the hospital with serious head injuries. Fellow police officers were on hand to support the officer as he was released from hospital.
After fleeing, Morizsan allegedly stole gas from a gas station moments later, was involved in a hit-and-run with another vehicle while fleeing the gas station and then carjacked a woman in Commack, according to investigators.
Morizsan and his alleged accomplice and passenger, 22-year-old Nicholas Franzone, also of Northport, were apprehended shortly later inside Target in Central Islip, where they were trying to buy a TV with a credit card stolen from the carjacking victim, prosecuitors have said.
Morizsan and Franzone pleaded not guilty last week at Suffolk County court after a grand jury indicted them on upgraded charges of assaulting a police officer, grand larceny, conspiracy, robbery, leaving the scene of an accident and other counts.
Judge Fernando Camacho set bail for Morizsan at $3 million cash or $30 million bond. Bail for Franzone was set at $300,000 cash or $900,000 bond. They are due back in court Nov. 5.
