Officers fatally shot Northampton man to stop him from stabbing mother, chief says

The Southampton town police chief said Monday that his officers shot dead an intoxicated man on Mother's Day because he refused orders to stop stabbing his mother.

The man was later identified as 28-year-old Steven Eastwood, of Topping Drive in the hamlet of Northampton, where the shooting occurred. She sustained more than 40 stab wounds and slashes, said the chief, James Kiernan. Her name wasn’t disclosed, nor were those of the officers who opened fire.

As of Sunday night, the mother was in surgery and remained unconscious, Kiernan said.

Two of the three officers at the scene opened fire, according to a news release from the state attorney general’s office, which by law assesses all deaths caused by the police. Early Monday evening, the office announced that it had opened a formal investigation into the shooting. 

Det. Sgt. Gina Laferrera, a police department spokeswoman, said that the three officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leaves and will later be put on modified duty, as is typical in such cases.

She said she believes this was the first fatal shooting by Southampton officers in the department's history.

Across New York, there were at least 11 deaths from police conduct in 2024, the most recent year for which statistics are available, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Two of those were by officers in the Suffolk County Police Department. Two others were by troopers in the State Police; the statistics don't specify where in the state those incidents happened.

Laferrera said the department is still investigating who fired how many shots and where on the body Eastwood was hit.

Asked whether the officers had tasers available, Laferrera said in a statement: "Those details remain under investigation but what I can say is officers were confronted with a rapidly evolving and extremely dangerous situation involving an armed subject actively stabbing another person."

The officers initially had been dispatched to the house following a 911 call Sunday afternoon from the mother, saying that her son was intoxicated and acting violently, according to the department. She called back to say he had begun threatening her with a knife, the chief said. Recordings of the 911 calls weren't released. 

Officers found Eastwood with a knife, standing over his mother, who was on the floor, the chief said.

"The officers repeatedly ordered Mr. Eastwood to drop the knife. Instead, he began advancing toward the officers while still armed. In an effort to draw him away from the victim and de-escalate the situation, officers backed away as he approached them with the knife," Kiernan said.

He added: "Within moments he refocused his attention on the victim and returned to her and was actively stabbing and slashing at her body. Faced with an ongoing deadly assault, officers discharged their service weapons, striking Mr. Eastwood and immediately stopping the attack."

There had been numerous prior incidents reported to the police over the last decade at the house, where he has lived on and off, Kiernan said.

Greg Mastronardi, whose parents live across the street, said he and his wife witnessed the shooting.

Mastronardi said that he saw a man come out of the house with a knife in his hand. 

"The kid ... had blood on him. The cop was telling him, 'Drop the knife, drop the knife' several times. He didn't comply," Mastronardi said.

One of the police officers was about 10 feet from the stairs leading to the porch of the home — where the man was — when the officer opened fire, Mastronardi said.

Laferrera said the shooting was inside the house.

The department has not released officers' body camera footage.