Suffolk officers fatally shoot man during stabbing attack on mother

A Northampton mother was left in critical condition after police say her 28-year-old son stabbed and slashed her more than 40 times inside their Toppings Drive home, then turned back toward her as Southampton Town officers tried to stop the attack.

Southampton Town police said the call came in at about 2:43 p.m. on May 10, when the woman told dispatchers her son, Steven Eastwood, was intoxicated and acting violently. In a second 911 call, she said he was threatening her with a knife. Three officers reached the home moments later and found Eastwood armed and standing over his mother on the floor, according to police.

Southampton Town Police Chief James Kiernan said officers repeatedly ordered Eastwood to drop the knife. Instead, police said, he advanced toward them while still armed. The officers backed away in an effort to draw him away from the victim and de-escalate the scene. Police said Eastwood then turned back to his mother and resumed stabbing and slashing her, prompting the officers to fire their service weapons and stop the assault. Eastwood died at the scene.

Flanders Northampton Ambulance personnel treated the woman and took her to a waiting Suffolk County Police helicopter, which flew her to Stony Brook University Hospital for surgery. She remained unconscious the next morning, police said.

The shooting is now under review by the New York State Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation, which opened a case on May 11. Under New York Executive Law Section 70-b, the office investigates deaths caused by police officers or peace officers. The review will examine the fatal encounter in a home that, according to Kiernan, had drawn repeated police responses over the past decade, including domestic calls.

The violence also highlights the scale of domestic-crisis calls across Suffolk County. County officials have said the 911 system received about 27,000 domestic-violence reports in 2024 and more than 280,000 over the past decade. Suffolk County Police also maintain a Domestic Violence/Elder Abuse Bureau that conducts confidential investigations in these cases.

Northampton is a hamlet and census-designated place in the Town of Southampton, and the case has renewed scrutiny of how quickly a domestic call can become a lethal emergency when officers arrive while the assault is still in progress.