POLICE KILL DRUG SUSPECT IN RAID, SAYING HE CHARGED AT TROOPERS

A New York State Police trooper fatally shot a man who charged at officers
as they stormed his bedroom during a drug raid early yesterday on the East
End of Long Island, the police said.

The man was identified as John Rasanen, 28. The police said he died minutes
after being shot once in the chest at point-blank range at 12 Overlook
Drive, Aquebogue, where he was a tenant.

Maj. Walter Heesch, commander of the state police on Long Island, said Mr.
Rasanen was the primary suspect sought in raids of four sites by a task
force of state, county and local police officers. Mr. Rasanen had been
under investigation for six months and was suspected of being a mid-level
cocaine and marijuana dealer, the police said.

Around 6 a.m., about 20 officers converged on the Aquebogue home, a
secluded raised ranch reached by dirt roads. A team of state troopers with
special protective gear burst into the house, and four officers charged
downstairs, where Mr. Rasanen was in bed, the police said.

"They said, 'Lay down on the floor,' as they crashed through the door,"
Major Heesch said. "They kicked the door down." But the major said that Mr.
Rasanen, "disregarding all commands," rose up and charged toward the
advancing team and ran into the lead officer, who fired once. "We did
locate right near the body a 9-millimeter pistol believed to be his," the
major said. He did not identify the officer who fired.

An unidentified woman in the bedroom was not injured. She and three other
occupants of the house were not arrested. Philip Robilotto, chief of
department for the Suffolk County police, said that seven other people were
arrested at the three other locations. There were no injuries in those
arrests, the police said.

A lawyer for the Rasanen family, Daniel G. Rodgers, expressed doubts about
the police account. Mr. Rodgers said that when he asked about his client's
status, the state police first denied that anything had happened and then
said that Mr. Rasanen was all right. "He was not a fighter," the lawyer
said of Mr. Rasanen, whom he had represented on traffic cases. "It just
doesn't make sense that he would resist the police."