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The Suffolk County Police officer critically injured earlier this month in a Long Island Expressway crash during a police pursuit will be released from Stony Brook University Hospital on Monday, police announced.
Officer Brendon Gallagher, 35, a member of the department’s Street Takeover Task Force, was conducting a traffic stop near Exit 55 in Brentwood on Jan. 5 when a Ford Mustang, allegedly driven by Cody Fisher, 29, sped past at nearly 100 mph.
Gallagher pursued the vehicle, but Fisher lost control, sideswiping Gallagher’s patrol SUV, police said. The officer’s vehicle overturned and struck a tree, leaving him with life-threatening injuries.
Drivers caught racing Sunday night on County Road 101 in Medford
“Miraculously, after 22 days in the hospital, Officer Gallagher will be released to continue recovering at home,” Suffolk Police said in a news release Sunday.
A press conference about Gallagher’s recovery and release will be held Monday at 11:30 a.m. at Stony Brook University Hospital. Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, Acting Commissioner Robert Waring, and Dr. James Vosswinkel, Chief of the Division of Trauma, Emergency Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care at Stony Brook, are expected to speak.
First responders spent 30 minutes freeing Gallagher from the wreckage. He was airlifted to the hospital, where he underwent surgery and received 25 units of blood. Suffolk County Police Acting Commissioner Robert Waring said Gallagher’s injuries were “so severe, they are typically considered not survivable.”
Gallagher, a U.S. Army National Guard veteran who served in Afghanistan from 2016 to 2017, previously survived a stabbing in the line of duty in December 2022 during a police call in Medford.
Fisher was apprehended by an off-duty Nassau County Police officer after the crash, police said. He has been charged with multiple offenses, including driving while impaired by drugs, second-degree assault, and unlawful fleeing of a police officer. He was on probation for a prior weapons conviction at the time of the crash, authorities said.
Top photos: Brendan Gallagher was critically injured in a crash on the Long Island Expressway during his pursuit of a Ford Mustang driver who was driving at speeds above 100 mph. The cop is now in fair condition at Stony Brook University Hospital (Suffolk County Police photos).