In the 10 years since a gunman roamed the streets of New Paltz, shooting at cops, the New Paltz Police department has beefed up its weaponry and updated its strategies for handling what officers call an “active shooter situation.”
The New Paltz Town board in November 2005 voted to buy AR15 rifles for the town’s officers. The AR15 rifles are light in weight and have sniper-quality accuracy. They also boast an "electronic sighting device" which makes aiming the rifle a process. These rifles have replaced shotguns in the local police squad cars.
The New Paltz police have being training with other police departments in the region so that officers are better prepared to work together when responding to crisis that requires the involvement of several police departments.
Lieutenant Steven Osarczuk, who is in charge of training and development for the New Paltz police, said when Jared Bozydaj went on his rampage a decade ago, the first officer on the scene was required to wait until other officers arrived before confronting him. Now, the officer on the scene “must engage the shooter,” he said. “We all train as that one officer that will engage the active shooter but it will be all hands on deck.”
This article is part of a multimedia report on the June 21, 2001 shooting in New Paltz by the Spring 2011 Feature Writing class at SUNY New Paltz.
