Clifton Park shootout leaves two Saratoga County deputies injured, one man dead (with video)

The warrant was one of four being executed in Saratoga and Albany counties as part of a six-month Drug Enforcement Administration investigation involving narcotics and weapons, according to DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino III. 

Officers from the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Operation Team and Narcotics Unit were executing a federal arrest warrant in conjunction with the DEA at 5:30 a.m. in the Fox Run Apartments complex at 100 Foxwood Drive in Clifton Park, and had announced their presence and entered the residence when they began to take fire, said Sheriff Michael Zurlo at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. 

Police returned fire. 

The shooting suspect was later identified as 23-year-old Anthony Zaremski, the subject of the investigation, Zurlo said. 

@dgazette Two Saratoga County sheriff’s deputies shot, wounded in Clifton Park – 5/23/23 ♬ original sound – Daily Gazette

Zaremski was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center at 9:15 a.m., but Zurlo would not confirm whether he had been shot in the head, as described in the dispatch audio provided by Fulton County Area News. He would not provide further details on the exchange of gun fire or whether anyone else was in the apartment at the time.

Zurlo said a DEA agent, who is also a medic, provided first aid to Zaremski until he was transported to the hospital. 

One deputy was hit in the right thigh, shattering his femur, Zurlo said. 

Officers at the scene applied tourniquets to the deputy until an ambulance arrived and transported him to Albany Medical Center as well. 

Zurlo said the officer was heading into surgery right around the time of the press conference. 

Another deputy received non-life-threatening injuries after being struck in the chest but the bullet was deflected by the officer’s body armor. That deputy has since been released from the hospital. 

Zurlo declined to release the names of the officers.

“As a matter of operational security, I have chosen not to release the names or identities of the deputies involved in this morning’s shooting incident,” said in a statement released Tuesday evening. “I understand that some media outlets may have learned the names of the deputies through their sources and respectfully ask that they not publish them at this time.”

The sheriff did share during Tuesday afternoon’s press conference that one deputy had been with the department for five years and the other two years.

“The quick thinking and instinct actions by members of the Special Operations Team in rendering first aid to the injured deputies, including applying two tourniquets to the deputy shot in the thigh was nothing short of heroic,” the sheriff said. 

Zurlo said Zaremski had a criminal record that included charges for attempted murder, criminal possession of a narcotic drug and criminal possession of a loaded firearm. 

Tarentino said that police have not been able to search the residence at Fox Run Apartment, but did seize “hundreds of thousands” of fentanyl and ecstasy pills and “multiple grams” of cocaine, along with nearly 50 rifles and handguns, during execution of the other warrants. 

“This is a great example of the connection between drugs and violence,” he said. “The amount of fentanyl pills we seized today is equivalent to roughly 60,000 lethal doses removed from your streets and community.” 

No one has been arrested in the Clifton Park incident, Zurlo said. He said the investigation is ongoing and the Sheriff’s Department will be the lead agency.

Zurlo thanked the staff of Albany Medical Center and the emergency medical services responders for their assistance treating those who were injured. 

“Our men and women run toward danger to keep our citizens safe and two of them narrowly made the ultimate sacrifice this morning,” he said. “There are no words to sufficiently describe how grateful I am this is only a press conference and not a eulogy.”

Mikki Adams, who lives in the complex with her 4-year-old son, said this isn’t the first incident to spur a large police presence there, noting there was a stabbing in the complex last year.

Adams moved to the complex two years ago from Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

“I relocated from Massachusetts to escape crime and now it’s happening in our backyard,” she said.

Adams said the incident took place at Building 3, but she was too far away to hear anything and only found out when a friend texted her asking if she was OK after seeing reports on social media.

She said she wants to leave the complex now.

Reporter Shenandoah Briere can be reached at sbriere@dailygazette.net. Follow her on twitter @ByBriere.