Suspect Arrested for DWAI, Reckless Driving
By Hank Russell
A Suffolk County police officer is fighting for his life and a suspect is under arrest after a horrific crash that sent the officer’s vehicle off the road.
On January 5, Highway Patrol Officer Brendon Gallagher was conducting a traffic stop on westbound Long Island Expressway, near exit 55, when Cody Fisher, who was driving a 2021 Ford Mustang, sped past the officer. Gallagher, who is a member of the recently created Street Takeover Task Force, activated his lights and sirens in an attempt to pull Fisher over, when Fisher lost control of his vehicle and sideswiped Gallagher’s SUV. The SUV left the roadway and overturned at approximately 6:10 p.m.
The Mustang also went off the road and struck a light post. Two off-duty Nassau County police officers, Timothy Deegan and Matthew Walling – both of whom recently graduated from the academy — happened to be at the scene. One assisted in arresting Fisher, while the other helped get Gallagher out of the vehicle.
Fisher, 29, of Brentwood, was transported to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. He was released and charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs, second-degree assault, second-degree unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle and second-degree reckless driving. He was arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on January 6.
At a press conference held on January 6 at Stony Brook University Hospital — where Gallagher was admitted after the crash and is still there — Acting Police Commissioner Robert Waring said Fisher was driving “at 95 to 100 miles per hour” when he struck Gallagher’s vehicle. Waring said it took emergency personnel on the scene “over 30 minutes to extricate [him] from the vehicle.”
Dr. James Vosswinkel, chief of the hospital’s Trauma, Emergency Surgery and Surgical Critical Care Center, said that, when Gallagher came in, he had “a belly full of blood” and a tear in his abdominal wall that “I have never seen in my 23 years as a doctor.” He also said that Gallagher is currently on life support, so “the next 24 to 48 hours are very critical.”
Because Fisher hit the officer’s car, and not the officer himself, the offense was not bail-eligible, which did not sit well with those at the press conference. “New York State failed this officer and now he is fighting for his life,” Suffolk PBA President Lou Civello, who called Gallagher “an absolute hero.”
“You shouldn’t almost have to kill a police officer to hold you on bail. These laws have no teeth. I’m telling the state Assembly and the state Senate: do your job!”
Civello called these vehicles like what Fisher drove “instruments of terror,” adding, “We should be taking these [vehicles] off the road and crushing them.”
County Executive Ed Romaine called it “a sad day” to have an officer like Gallagher on life support due to someone else’s recklessness. “[Someone like Fisher] endangers everyone’s life on the road and endangered the life of a police officer.”
This is not the first time Gallagher was injured on the job. In 2022, he was stabbed by a suspect in Medford. Waring said, when he returned to the job, he was offered “a desk job” until he was fully healed, but, instead, wanted to go back on patrol.
Gallagher has been on the force for three years, Waring said. He received numerous honors, including two department recognitions, a Purple Heart medal, a Combat Gold medal and was named Cop of the Year. Waring also noted that Gallagher had “a great attitude, a great personality and he made everybody laugh.”
Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst) added. “As the dad of a police officer, my heart is sick. “[Gallagher] is the type of police officer we need.”