A 62-year-old Huntington Station man died Tuesday afternoon after running from Suffolk County police officers who were trying to take him into custody on a parole warrant, authorities said. Victor Santos was later found hiding in a grassy area near the South Huntington Water District, and police say he was unresponsive by the time they turned him over after handcuffing him facedown.
According to Newsday, the incident began around 1:20 p.m. Tuesday when Second Precinct Anti-Crime officers approached Santos during a patrol check at Alfred J. Walker Memorial Park, located at 33 West 11th Street. Police said Santos was wanted on a parole warrant and fled as officers tried to take him into custody, prompting a search of the surrounding area.
Witnesses Point Police to Hiding Spot
Officers were directed to Santos after witnesses pointed toward a grassy area where he was hiding, in the vicinity of the South Huntington Water District on 5th Avenue South, per the same account. Police said he was handcuffed while facedown, and when he was turned over — officers did not specify how long he had been in that position — he was unresponsive.
Officers began administering CPR, gave Santos the anti-overdose medication Narcan, and used an automated external defibrillator on him, the outlet reports. He was then taken to Huntington Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
Homicide Squad and State Attorney General Involved
The Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad is investigating the circumstances of Santos's death, and the New York State Attorney General's Office has been notified, according to HuntingtonNow. That office's Office of Special Investigation is tasked with reviewing deaths that occur during encounters with police across the state.
The state attorney general's office has made clear in its own reporting that a decision not to pursue criminal charges in such cases is not the same as a finding that no wrongdoing occurred. Per the office's Office of Special Investigation annual report, a no-charge outcome means only that prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that an officer committed a crime, and it notes that civil remedies may still be available to a family.
A Separate Case Shows How Long Reviews Can Take
How long that kind of review might take is an open question, but a case out of Syracuse offers one point of comparison. As reported by CNY Central, the attorney general's office announced nearly three and a half years after Alex Rivera's in-custody death that it would not file criminal charges against Syracuse police officers. Rivera died on May 31, 2023, following an encounter with Syracuse Police Department members, and the medical examiner in that case attributed his death to acute polysubstance intoxication involving lethal amounts of fentanyl and xylazine, ruling it accidental.
No such determination has been made in Santos's case, and the cause of his death has not been disclosed by authorities. The Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad's investigation remains open, and it is not yet known what the state attorney general's review will find.
