New York State Police have launched a criminal probe into a trooper who claimed he was shot and wounded by an unknown gunman on a Long Island highway last week.

The trooper, Thomas Mascia, 27, was suspended without pay this week, New York State Police Major Stephen Udice said at a press briefing on Wednesday. He said the agency was conducting both criminal and internal investigations into the circumstances of the shooting that Mascia reported as happening around 11:45 p.m. last Wednesday.

New York State Police have suspended a trooper without pay after launching an investigation into his account of being shot and wounded while trying to help a motorist on a Long Island highway

The New York State trooper who claimed he was shot during a traffic stop on Long Island last week was suspended without pay — as officials probe whether he lied about the incident, authorities said. Police spent hours searching Trooper Thomas Mascia’s home in West Hempstead on Monday after launching an internal investigation into his account of the Oct.