Long Island police officers fatally shot a man who was pointing a BB gun at them early Wednesday morning, authorities said.

James Rosano, 33, was acting erratically at his mother’s house in Carle Place, Nassau County police detective Stephen Fitzpatrick said at a press conference. His mother dialed 911, and three officers arrived just after midnight.

“Kiss me and say goodbye, I’m going outside, and the police are going to take my life,” Rosano told his mother before the deadly confrontation, according to police.

Rosano was holding a black BB gun that appeared to officers to be a real shotgun. Nassau County authorities showed a photo of the BB gun at the press conference. All three officers believed the weapon was real until after the shooting.

“You look at it, and you tell me if you can see anything different in what that gun is,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said. “That was what was pointed at our officers; that was the threat.”

Officers ordered Rosano to drop the gun numerous times before one officer fired a fatal shot, police said. Rosano was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

All three officers at the scene were wearing bodycams which captured the deadly confrontation, police officials said. The videos were turned over to the state attorney general’s office, which handles all police shootings in New York.

Rosano had a history of run-ins with law enforcement, including two recent arrests in which he was accused of assaulting his girlfriend, according to police. Fitzpatrick estimated cops had been called to the Carle Place residence half a dozen times for domestic disputes.

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/09/03/long-island-police-kill-man-bb-gun/