Riverhead police called back to Wading River drug suspect’s home

Riverhead police last week were twice called back to a Wading River property where authorities say a 60-year-old man had pulled a gun on two East End Drug Task Force officers last Tuesday, Sept. 25, before one of the officers fired a shot and missed.

Police arrived Friday for a domestic dispute and again Saturday in response to a report of guns being seen on the property, although the guns turned out to be BB guns. No charges were filed in either of the cases.

Last Tuesday, an occupant of the Wading River-Manor Road home, Thomas Counihan, allegedly pulled a gun on officers during a probation visit before the shot was fired. He was then also found to be in possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and pills, according to the DA’s office. He was taken to Stony Brook Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Though District Attorney Thomas Spota said Mr. Counihan would face drugs and weapons charges upon his release, a DA spokesman said Wednesday that Mr. Counihan had not yet been charged. He’s since been transferred to Brunswick Hospital in Amityville.

On Friday afternoon, three days after the original incident, Riverhead police officers responded to the site when a dispute erupted involving Mr. Counihan’s daughter, Samantha, and her cousin, Mercedes Counihan, according to a police report.

The ranch-style home is owned by 85-year-old Josephine Counihan of Southampton, Thomas Counihan’s mother and grandmother of Mercedes and Samantha.

Mercedes Counihan told police she came to the house because her grandmother wanted her to make sure the home was in order, and she entered the home by breaking a window, and then got into a verbal dispute with Samantha, the report reads. Mercedes Counihan told police her grandmother said no one should be living in the home.

Samantha Counihan told police that she and her boyfriend, Charles Burrows, have lived there, along with Thomas Counihan, a long time.

The officer told them that the owner of the house would have to take action to evict Samantha, and a domestic incident report was filed, according to the report. Samantha Counihan had been present at the house late Tuesday and again on Wednesday and declined to comment to a News-Review reporter. Her cousin could not be reached for comment this week.

Then on Saturday afternoon, police were called to the property following a report that guns were being loaded into a trailer there. The responding officer was told by Samantha Counihan that the she had put BB-guns into the trailer and police could enter the trailer and check, a report reads. Police said two handgun-style BB guns and two long gun-style BB guns were found.

Police from several agencies had been at the house for about nine hours Sept. 25, and into the early morning hours of Sept. 26.

Mr. Spota, whose office oversees the drug task force, said in a statement after the shooting incident that “it is clear the police officer’s discharge of his weapon, given the circumstance, was justified.”
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