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Suspect in Fatal Setauket Shooting Arrested in Tennessee

Brett Knight was arrested by federal marshals Wednesday in Tennessee. (Photo credit:  wate.com/Sevier County Sheriff's Office)
Brett Knight was arrested by federal marshals Wednesday in Tennessee. (Photo credit: wate.com/Sevier County Sheriff’s Office)

The man federal agents arrested in Tennessee in connection with the fatal shooting of a Setauket man last month will be arraigned Friday on murder charges, Suffolk County police said.

Brett Knight, 45, was taken into custody earlier this week by U.S. Marshals who had located him inside a house in Seymour, Tenn., which is just south of Knoxville. He was extradited back to New York on Thursday and was held overnight at the Sixth Precinct, authorities said.

Knight, police said, allegedly gunned down 50-year-old Ross Reisner on Sept. 24. Another man, Kevin Murray, was wounded in the shooting, authorities said.

The shooting sparked a nationwide manhunt that concluded Wednesday when U.S. Marshals tracked down Knight, who had purchased a motorcycle and was believed to be traveling throughout the country, marshals said. Suffolk County police detectives were also at the scene when Knight was arrested.

Two handguns were recovered from the scene, marshals said, adding that Knight was considered “armed, volatile, and extremely dangerous.”

“The Marshals Service and the New York detectives were in constant communication throughout this long investigation and all precautions were taken in the apprehension,” Jimmy Fowler, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Tennessee, said in a statement.

The victim, 50-year-old Ross Reisner, was discovered inside his Upper Sheep Pasture Road home at 8:45 p.m. on Sept. 24 and was later pronounced dead at Stony Brook University Hospital, police said.

Investigators said Reisner, a well-known equestrian, was struck in the chest after a gunman fired gunshots through a window.

Knight will be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip.