A highway shoulder is where New York state troopers spotted Luke Patterson, walking by himself around 2 a.m. after his car became disabled. By the end of the encounter in rural New York, the 41-year-old chef would be killed by a trooper’s gunfire.
Authorities say the trooper shot him when he made a sudden movement toward the cruiser after behaving strangely. The man’s family said he had been having psychiatric problems but posed no threat to anyone.
Unlike many other police shootings across the U.S., no video of the May 23 confrontation exists to help determine what happened.
That’s because New York remains one of only five states where the primary state law enforcement agency is not equipped with dashboard cameras, according to a nationwide Associated Press survey.
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