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On September 3, 2006, the “Safe Cop” reward was also credited for the arrest and conviction of the murderer of New York State Trooper Joseph Longobardo. The trooper had succumbed to a gunshot wound inflicted two days earlier when he and his partner, Trooper Donald J. Baker Jr, were ambushed while searching for an escaped convict in Chautauqua County. On June 10, 2006, the escapee had shot and wounded a New York State trooper on June 10, 2006, during a traffic stop. The escapee was the focus of a police manhunt since the initial shooting and had been receiving assistance from friends and family to evade arrest. Trooper Longobardo and his partner were conducting surveillance on the home of a relative of the escapee when the convict shot them both with a high-powered rifle. The wounded partner was shot in the back with the bullet penetrating his vest and exiting his abdomen. Trooper Longobardo suffered a severed artery when he was shot in the leg. The suspect was apprehended in Pennsylvania on September 8, 2006, one day after being added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. On November 29, 2006, the suspect pled guilty to the trooper’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison. |