Newark, NJ - Officer Is Killed In Crash While Chasing A Suspect In A Stolen Police Car

March 4, 2007
Newark Officer Is Killed in Crash While Chasing a Suspect
By JOHN HOLL and MANNY FERNANDEZ
 

NEWARK, March 3 — A Newark police sergeant was killed early Saturday morning when his car flipped over as he chased a handcuffed suspect who had managed to drive away in another squad car, the authorities said.

The sergeant, Tommaso Popolizio, 33, was among several officers trying to crack down on drag racing on Doremus Avenue, a flat, straight stretch of road in an industrial corner of the city’s East Ward that has become notorious for late-night illegal races.

Shortly before 4 a.m., the police pulled over a car that was leaving the area, officials said, and one of the men inside, William Rodriguez, 22, was taken into custody. Mr. Rodriguez, of Cranbury, N.J., was placed in the back seat of a marked police vehicle with his hands cuffed behind his back, the police said.

But Mr. Rodriguez somehow maneuvered his hands and arms to his front, made his way into the front seat and drove away. As Sergeant Popolizio pursued Mr. Rodriguez, the two vehicles crashed, causing the sergeant’s car to overturn.

Sergeant Popolizio, who suffered severe head injuries, was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at University Hospital in Newark, the authorities said. Mr. Rodriguez was found soon afterward hiding in tall weeds in an abandoned lot.

In a news conference Saturday at the hospital, Mayor Cory A. Booker called Sergeant Popolizio a Newark hero and a “cop’s cop.” The officer had been with the police force for 12 years. He was married and had four children.

Police work was a family tradition for Sergeant Popolizio: Two of his three brothers were Newark officers and had served on the force with him. One of them, Nicola B. Popolizio, died in December at age 38 after suffering a heart attack, officials said.

Calling Sergeant Popolizio’s death a tragedy, Mr. Booker said, “A hero here died in the line of duty protecting our citizens, keeping us safe.”

Sergeant Popolizio, the third officer killed in the line of duty in Newark since 2003, was remembered by friends as a committed officer, an avid paintball player and a doting father who was known as Paps.

One day in March 1999, he and a partner rushed into a burning, smoky building on Sunset Avenue to rescue three young children trapped inside. “All in a day’s work,” he told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

Mr. Rodriguez was charged with first-degree aggravated manslaughter, auto theft, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and four other offenses. Officials said he had previously been arrested nine times, including an arrest last month in nearby Hamilton, N.J., on charges of eluding the police and resisting arrest.

Numerous questions remain about how Mr. Rodriguez was able to maneuver his arms from behind his back while handcuffed and get behind the wheel of a police vehicle as officers stood nearby. Mr. Booker and the Newark police director, Garry F. McCarthy, said such questions were part of the investigation.

Newark squad cars have sliding plexiglass partitions that separate the back seat from the front. It is virtually impossible to slide open the partition from the back seat. It was not known Saturday whether one of the back doors had been left open.

The Essex County prosecutor, Paula T. Dow, said she was outraged that Mr. Rodriguez had tried to escape in such a dangerous manner.

“It shows a risk that officers have to face every day, even on such an innocent thing like stopping drag racing,” said Ms. Dow, who added that she did not blame the officers who first apprehended Mr. Rodriguez.

“I don’t fault anyone at all,” she said, “except the defendant in this case, who is directly responsible, in my opinion, for this horrific accident.”

Most handcuffed suspects remain seated in the back of squad cars. But it is not unheard of for one to try to escape by stealing the vehicle, according to news reports.

In 2001, a 19-year-old man in Tooele County, Utah, moved his cuffed hands from behind his back to the front of his body and stole a sheriff’s sport utility vehicle, then eluded deputies for a while by tracking the chase on the police radio.

In October, a 20-year-old woman in Delhi Township, Ohio, was handcuffed and put in the back of a police cruiser. The woman removed one of the handcuffs, reached out an open window to open the door and jumped into the driver’s seat, taking the police on a six-mile chase.

Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said escapes of this nature usually involve some deviation from procedure and should prompt the Newark Police Department to review its policies. “There is a long history of these things ending in tragedy whenever you fail to properly secure people in custody,” said Mr. O’Donnell, a former New York police officer and trainer.

In Newark, the chain of events that led to the sergeant’s death began when officers went to the area of 354 Doremus Avenue in response to a complaint of drag racing. Officers pulled over a car leaving the area. Mr. Rodriguez, one of four people in the vehicle, tossed a gun from the window as police approached, officials said. The serial number on the gun, a 9 millimeter Glock that was later recovered by police, had been removed.

Mr. Rodriguez was arrested on a charge of possession of a handgun, handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car, the authorities said. The officers were attending to the other suspects when Mr. Rodriguez drove away.

After the crash, Mr. Rodriguez fled from the police vehicle. He took off several items of clothing and hid in tall weeds in an abandoned lot on Doremus Avenue, the police said. He was later found by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. One of the officers received a minor injury during Mr. Rodriguez’s arrest.

Mr. Rodriguez is expected to be arraigned Monday morning. His bail was set at $1 million, Ms. Dow said.

The street, a nearly three-mile straightaway that runs parallel to the New Jersey Turnpike, has been popular among drag racers for years. Mr. McCarthy, the police director, said that officers had made a number of arrests in the area in the past, and that in light of Saturday’s fatal pursuit, he would explore new ways to curtail racing there.

The Newark police enacted strict guidelines on car chases several years ago after police pursuits that resulted in deadly crashes. Officials said that the chase yesterday was an authorized pursuit, given the location, time of day and circumstances of the case.

Sergeant Popolizio graduated from Barringer High School in Newark, and had grown up on Mount Pleasant Avenue, one in a family of four boys and three girls.

He later took to playing paintball, and about three times a year, he and a group of friends would visit a range in northern New Jersey and splatter each other with shots. One of the group, Alberto Padilla, 33, said Sergeant Popolizio was always the best shot.

“Everybody made sure they had him on their team,” said Mr. Padilla, who had known the sergeant for 20 years.

On Eagle Rock Avenue in Roseland, N.J., where Sergeant Popolizio lived with his wife and children, people embraced and talked on the porch of the modest wood-frame house with green trim. A Newark police officer on the street outside said that family members declined to comment.

Miles away, at the scene of the crash on Doremus Avenue, a bouquet of white roses lay beside a wooden telephone pole. One of the police cars in the chase appeared to have struck the pole. It was splintered at its base, and there were skid marks in the dirt next to the road. Both cars had been removed by late morning.

Marcelino Arce, a friend of the sergeant’s, had left the roses. Mr. Arce and Sergeant Popolizio used to live in the same building in Newark and became fast friends, going to Yankee games and shooting pool together. “He loved the job,” Mr. Arce said. “His heart was the job.
 

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