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Farmingville Man Guilty of Attempted Murder in Police Shooting

Nicholas Hansen was convicted of attempted murder.
Nicholas Hansen was convicted of attempted murder.

A jury convicted a Farmingville man Friday of second-degree attempted murder for opening fire on police at a Holbrook gas station.

Nicholas Hansen, indicted in 2011 for the shooting, was also convicted on 16 other charges, including multiple counts of criminal use of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance. The 23-year-old faces up to 25 years on the attempted murder charge alone.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 14.

The investigators who were fired upon were members of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Heroin Task Force. As police surrounded and blocked his car, Hansen exited the car and began firing. Hansen was struck four times when police returned fire.

Prosecutors said Hansen was in possession of four ounces of cocaine.

“The investigation of drug dealers is the most treacherous police assignment and what happened here on a peaceful summer evening in Holbrook illustrates the peril our task force members put themselves in to eradicate the trafficking of cocaine, heroin, and painkillers,” Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota said in a statement.

The heroin task force—created in 2009—includes detectives and investigators from the DA’s office, Drug Enforcement Administration, New York State police, Suffolk County Sheriff’s office, New York State Division of Parole and Suffolk County Department of Probation.