Zayas sentenced to 40 years for shooting cop

GOSHEN – The man, who shot and wounded Middletown City Police Officer Christopher Dolan, was sentenced in Orange County Court Monday to 40 years in state prison.

Raymond Zayas, 34, was found guilty in a second trial – the first ended in a mistrial – to assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

At the time of the sentencing in Goshen, the courtroom was packed with Middletown police officers. Zayas told Judge Jeffrey Berry he was sorry for the incident, but did not say he remembered firing through a doorway at his home, wounding Dolan and narrowly missing two other officers.

The incident began at 4:18 p.m. on July 24, 2007 when the officers responded to a report of a domestic dispute at a residence on Wawayanda Avenue in the City of Middletown.

Society should never tolerate that kind of action, said Middletown Police Chief Matthew Byrne.

“The sentence today shows the police are not sent out there to actually be injured; it’s not part of the job,” he said. “They don’t expect to get hurt when the go to work. They are out there protecting and serving; they are out there trying to do their jobs.”

Society must come together and make sure people who commit acts like this are punished, Byrne said.

The police department and its officers will never be the same, but he hopes the sentencing will help them move forward.

The 40 year sentence imposed on Zayas was what Senior Assistant District Attorney Kelle Grimmer had sought.