Driver critical but stable after Sodus trooper shooting

The man was flown by Mercy Flight to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester and is listed in critical but stable condition, according to police. That supplies an important answer missing from the initial information about the shooting, but it does not mean he is out of danger. No subsequent medical update has been established. The trooper was not hurt.⁠1

The encounter happened Wednesday, October 28, 2026, on Preemption Road near State Route 104 in Sodus, Wayne County. News10NBC reported that State Police placed the start of the traffic stop around 5 p.m. That is an approximate stop time, not a verified time of the shooting. The original reason for pulling the driver over remains unexplained in the available reporting.⁠1⁠2

According to the State Police account reported by 13WHAM, the trooper obtained the driver's license, checked his information and learned that he had several warrants. The trooper called Wayne County sheriff's deputies for backup, then returned to the driver. The available chronology does not establish whether those deputies arrived before the shooting.⁠1

Police say the encounter escalated when the trooper asked the man to step out. Major Kevin P. Sucher, the State Police Troop E commander, described the driver restarting the vehicle and attempting to leave while the trooper was moving with it. His wording leaves a consequential part of the encounter imprecise.⁠1⁠4

Sucher said the vehicle stopped again while the trooper was trying to get the man out. He said the man produced a handgun, the trooper had initially drawn his Taser to try to take him into custody, and a struggle over the handgun followed. The trooper then drew his service firearm and shot the man, Sucher said.⁠1

Those distinctions matter. The account says the man produced a handgun; it does not establish that he fired it. Drawing a Taser does not establish that it was discharged. And the description of the trooper “kind of going along with the vehicle” does not establish whether he was dragged, where he was positioned or precisely how either person moved before the vehicle stopped.⁠1

The number of shots, details of any weapon recovery and an independently corroborated sequence have not been established in the available reporting. Sucher's account gives investigators a sequence to examine. It cannot, by itself, settle every factual or legal question about the use of lethal force.⁠1⁠2

The warrants are another part of the account that needs sharper documentation. 13WHAM reported “several warrants.” News10NBC used the wording “multiple search warrants, including burglary and robbery.” Neither description supplies an exact count or establishes the warrants' precise legal type and underlying allegations. They should not be silently converted into confirmed arrest warrants, convictions or charges arising from this shooting.⁠1⁠2

Whatever the warrants ultimately show, their existence is a separate question from what happened when the trooper fired. They may help explain why the trooper sought backup and attempted to take the driver into custody. A justification finding still requires an account of the circumstances of the shooting, including the alleged handgun struggle.

State Police are handling the investigation, WROC reported on October 28, attributing that information to the Wayne County Sheriff's Office. The agency employing the trooper is therefore also the agency publicly identified as investigating the encounter. Additional investigative involvement by the Wayne County district attorney or New York attorney general has not been established.⁠11

The available reporting does not establish the wounded man's name or age, the trooper's identity, filed charges, an incident-specific public camera release or a named eyewitness account. Those are limits on the public account—not proof that recordings, witnesses or other investigative activity do not exist.⁠1⁠2⁠11

For now, the medical status is clearer than the full circumstances of the gunfire. The next substantive answers are a newer report on the man's condition and evidence explaining why the stop began, how the vehicle moved and stopped, and what happened during the alleged struggle over the handgun. Until then, the police account remains an account to be tested, not a verdict on the shooting.