{"id":180600,"date":"2026-03-31T08:35:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180600\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:35:22","slug":"police-identify-suspect-trooper-in-lewis-county-shootout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180600\/","title":{"rendered":"Police identify suspect, trooper in Lewis County shootout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) &#8211; State police have released the names of the suspect and trooper who were involved in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwnytv.com\/2026\/03\/28\/2-dead-2-burned-out-cars-suspect-shot-by-police\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wwnytv.com\/2026\/03\/28\/2-dead-2-burned-out-cars-suspect-shot-by-police\/\">last Friday\u2019s shootout<\/a> in the Lewis County town of Diana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials identified the suspect as Victor Craighead, 47, of Harrisville.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police said he walked out of his home at 7654 Alpine Road armed with a long gun and fired at law enforcement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">They said Trooper Timothy Dovi shot him with his division-issued firearm. Craighead was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Trooper Dovi, who was not injured, has been a member of the New York State Police for more than nine years and is assigned to the Special Operations Response Team. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He is currently on critical incident leave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Craighead\u2019s sister, Ren\u00e9, doesn\u2019t believe that her brother would do something like this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cMy brother does not have a police record. We are not killers. We are not killers. We would never harm you or kill you,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Police said multiple body-worn cameras captured the incident, but the footage is not being released at this time due to the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The shooting happened after police responded to a trespassing complaint at 7601 Alpine Road. The homeowner notified police that someone with a long gun was on their property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">While responding to that report, troopers found a dead body inside a burned vehicle. A second body was later found nearby, also inside a burned vehicle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">During the investigation, police said Craighead came out of his home and shot at the trooper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI seen the burnt vehicles come out and whatnot. That\u2019s how I knew who it was for sure. This is a small community, it\u2019s pretty sad. I mean the guy lived off the grid, you know what I mean? There was no power up there. He lived off the grid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ren\u00e9 Craighead says she wants more proof her brother did it, and admits Craighead\u2019s mindset toward the believed victims was souring &#8211; instigated by neighbors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cMy brother\u2019s mind was slowly going because these people were constantly filling his head, manipulating him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Troopers said autopsies on the two bodies were scheduled for Monday. Police said they expect to release the names of the people once the medical examiner\u2019s office confirms their identities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WWNY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) &#8211; State police have released the names of the suspect and trooper who were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72666,34641,9,11,10,49,51,50,72893,72895,72894],"class_list":["post-180600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-alpine-road","tag-diana","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-shootout","tag-trooper-timothy-dovi","tag-victor-craighead"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}