Suffolk County man charged after loaded gun found in Nissequogue State Park

A loaded 9mm handgun was allegedly found in a restricted area of Nissequogue State Park, a Suffolk County landmark where park visitors are supposed to be able to recreate without encountering armed activity near abandoned buildings and shell casings.

Miguel Enrique Astudillo Ruiz, 24, was indicted April 17 by a Suffolk County grand jury on charges including Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a Class C felony under New York law, along with related counts of third-degree weapon possession and firearm possession. Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said the alleged conduct put law-abiding families and other park visitors at serious risk.

Prosecutors said the incident began around 2 p.m. on April 4, when park rangers saw a vehicle parked outside an abandoned building in a restricted area of the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center grounds. Rangers also reportedly noticed spent shell casings in the vehicle’s cupholder. Investigators said Astudillo Ruiz was seen nearby collecting scrap metal from the building before a search of the vehicle allegedly uncovered a loaded 9mm Taurus handgun.

The magazine was described as capable of holding more than 10 rounds. Suffolk County Police later lifted a latent fingerprint from the magazine, and comparison work allegedly matched Astudillo Ruiz, according to the indictment announcement. He was arraigned before Supreme Court Justice John B. Collins on April 17 and ordered held on $50,000 cash, $500,000 bond or $500,000 partially secured bond. He is due back in court on May 7.

The case lands in a park with a long and complicated history. Nissequogue River State Park covers 521 acres in Kings Park, in the Town of Smithtown on Suffolk County’s North Shore. State Parks acquired 153 acres of the former psychiatric center in 2000 and the remaining 368 acres in 2007. The former Kings Park Psychiatric Center operated from 1885 until 1996, and the park was first established in 2000 on the waterfront portion of the closed campus.

That history is part of what makes the location so sensitive. Abandoned structures and restricted sections remain part of the landscape, and authorities have long warned against entering those areas. In this case, prosecutors said those boundaries were crossed in a way that turned a county park into the setting for a loaded gun investigation, a reminder that public land enforcement is not just about trespassing rules but about preventing dangerous conduct in places families assume are safe.