Assault on Parole Officers Results in Prison Sentence

Modified: October 11, 2019 8:57am

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10/11/2019

Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn announces that 39-year-old Randy White of Buffalo has been sentenced by State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller to a determinate sentence of 8 years in prison followed by 5 years of post-release supervision. He was sentenced as a second felony offender on Thursday, October 10, 2019.

On February 27, 2018, at approximately 9 p.m., the defendant intentionally injured two parole officers while they were performing their lawful duties in conducting a routine residence visit of a person under community supervision on Northumberland Avenue in the City of Buffalo.

The defendant was sitting in the driver’s seat of his vehicle along with a parolee with the engine running when the parole officers approached. The parole officers requested that the defendant provide identification. The defendant refused their requests then placed the vehicle into drive and reverse numerous times.

The officers then observed a gun in the center console of the vehicle whereupon they took positive action to investigate the matter further. The defendant attempted to drive away before the parole officers could conduct their investigation.

The officers attempted to stop the car by subduing the defendant, but the defendant continued driving with one parole officer being dragged alongside the vehicle and the other parole officer being trapped inside the vehicle. The officers suffered physical injuries while making their escape from the vehicle. While trying to gain control over the defendant, one of the parole officers shot the defendant in the leg. 

Buffalo Police patrol officers located the defendant several miles away from the scene. He was taken to ECMC where he was treated for his leg injury. During his interviews with Buffalo Police detectives, the defendant gave several false accounts of what transpired.

On July 18, 2019, a jury found White guilty of two counts of Assault in the Second Degree, Class “D” felonies, and one count of Unlicensed Operation of a Motor Vehicle in the First Degree, a Class “A” misdemeanor. The defendant was found guilty on all counts in the indictment against him after a four-day trial.

DA Flynn commends Detectives Terrence Supples and Christopher Sterlace, as well as Officer Lawrence Briggs and Ian Baker of the Buffalo Police Department for their work in the investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Lauren Nash of the DA’s Felony Trials Bureau and Gary Hackbush, Chief of the DA’s Tactical Prosecution Unit.