New York's Attorney General will not file charges against the state troopers who fatally shot 28-year-old Ali Ali in the woods of Woodbury two years ago, closing out a case that began with a brutal stabbing at a Brooklyn laundromat and ended in a barefoot chase through Orange County brush. The Office of Special Investigation announced Wednesday, September 30, 2026, that prosecutors could not disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the trooper's use of deadly force was justified under New York law.
According to the New York State Office of the Attorney General, the investigation examined the September 18, 2024 encounter in Woodbury from start to finish, tracing it back to a 2021 Chevy Equinox that Ali stole at knifepoint in New York City in the early morning hours. OnStar alerted New York State Police roughly four hours later, and troopers first located the stolen vehicle traveling northbound on the New York State Thruway in Rockland County at 5:45 a.m., per the same report. Separately, News 12 Brooklyn reported that a New York State trooper spotted the stolen Chevy near Ramapo and began following it before the Thruway encounter escalated.
OnStar remotely disabled the Chevy near Thruway mile marker 49 in Woodbury at 5:49 a.m., causing it to slow, collide with a tractor-trailer, strike a guardrail and catch fire, the Office of the Attorney General's report found. Ali fled the burning vehicle barefoot and armed with a knife, escaping into the surrounding woods as troopers began what would become a multi-hour search.
A Brooklyn Attack Sparked the Manhunt
The chase had its origins two days earlier, when Ali allegedly stabbed a laundromat employee in the face in Bath Beach, Brooklyn. News 12 Brooklyn reported the victim was a 50-year-old employee, while CBS New York identified her as 56 years old; both outlets reported that Ali had dropped off laundry around 7 a.m. and returned that afternoon before the attack, which News 12 described as a rage-fueled incident sparked because his laundry was not ready. The laundromat owner gave News 12 photos of Ali and the knife allegedly used in the attack.
Per NYPD, Ali had been arrested four times in New York City in the year before the laundromat attack, facing sex crime, robbery and criminal mischief charges. State troopers were searching for him in connection with the Brooklyn stabbing, according to the New York State Police.
Trail Camera Tip Narrowed the Search
A New York State Police Special Operation Response Team began a grid search of the woods shortly after 10 a.m. on September 18, 2024. Members saw Ali at 1:47 p.m. wielding a knife and began following him, the Attorney General's report states. Multiple local and county law enforcement agencies assisted state police in establishing a search perimeter, per the same findings.
The break in the search came from a civilian. CBS New York reported that at 12:30 p.m. that day, a resident in Highland Mills checked a private trail camera and spotted Ali holding a knife on the property, a tip that helped narrow the search area in the hamlet located within the town of Woodbury, roughly 60 miles north of New York City. A trail camera photographed Ali wielding the knife in Highland Mills, according to News 12 Brooklyn.
Bodycam Captures Final Confrontation
Body-worn camera footage reviewed by state investigators documented a trooper pleading with Ali during the standoff: “We can resolve this peacefully, just stop, we really don't want to hurt you, just stop man. Ali please just stop man, we don't have to do this.” The Office of the Attorney General first released that bodycam footage to the public in December 2024.
Troopers ordered Ali to drop the knife, but he refused and continued walking away from them while still holding it, News 12 Brooklyn reported. An officer then deployed a Taser; Ali fell to the ground but got back up and walked toward the troopers while still holding the knife, ignoring repeated orders to stop. Another trooper then fired his gun, striking Ali, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Legal Standard Behind the Decision
The Office of Special Investigation's conclusion rests on New York Penal Law Sections 35.15 and 35.30, which authorize police officers to use deadly physical force when they reasonably believe it is necessary to defend against another person's imminent use of deadly physical force. Under New York law, prosecutors bear the burden of disproving a self-defense or justification claim beyond a reasonable doubt at trial, a standard that shaped the outcome here.
State oversight of the case, rather than a local district attorney's review, stems from New York Executive Law Section 70-b, which mandates that the Office of Special Investigation assess every incident in which a police or peace officer may have caused a death, regardless of whether the officer was on duty or the decedent was armed. That law was enacted to ensure independent state-level review of officer-involved fatalities statewide.
The Woodbury decision fits a broader pattern this year of OSI rulings clearing officers in fatal shootings of knife-wielding or armed suspects, including an August ruling in a Flatbush case and a separate August 2026 decision clearing New York State Troopers in Orange County who fatally shot a 69-year-old Deerpark woman holding a pellet gun in April 2025. Both outcomes turned on the same heavy burden state law places on prosecutors seeking to disprove an officer's claim of justified self-defense.
