Trooper Who Said He Was Attacked Actually Shot Himself, Prosecutors Say

Thomas J. Mascia scattered casings around and then shot himself in the leg in a bid for attention, prosecutors said.

A Long Island state trooper hailed as a hero last fall was charged on Monday with staging a shooting that set off a manhunt for a nonexistent suspect, according to Nassau County prosecutors.

Thomas J. Mascia, 27, had told authorities that a gunman had shot him in the leg during a traffic stop, according to a criminal complaint — a report that shut down a major road and terrified the public, prosecutors said. Investigators later discovered that Mr. Mascia had actually shot himself, prosecutors said. He was charged with falsifying evidence and lying to law enforcement.

In the home in West Hempstead that Mr. Mascia shared with his parents, officers discovered a Smith & Wesson semiautomatic rifle with illegal modifications, according to the criminal complaints. His parents, Dorothy R. Mascia, 55, and Thomas Mascia, 62, were charged with possession of a firearm, also a felony.

All three turned themselves in on Monday at a New York State Police headquarters in East Farmingdale on Long Island — the same office where Mr. Mascia had worked until his recent resignation.

“He knew the depth and breadth of the response that comes with an officer shooting,” Anne T. Donnelly, the Nassau County district attorney, said at a news conference on Monday at Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola. Mr. Mascia and his parents had earlier been arraigned in Nassau County District Court in Hempstead.

“He knew the fear it would create, but he did it anyway, whether for sympathy, attention, to ease a wounded ego,” she added. “What he did was unconscionable.”