Exclusive video raises questions about officer's death

JERSEY CITY

Marc DiNardo was shot in 2009 after he and other cops stormed the apartment of a robbery suspect.

He and an accomplice came out blazing.

Eyewitness News has exclusive new video which is raising questions from DiNardo's widow. Why did police storm the building, rather than wait it out?

It was chaos on July 16th, 2009.

Jersey City's emergency service unit raids an apartment building on Reed Street.

They were trying once and for all to capture two armed suspects.

They'd been caught on surveillance video unleashing a barrage of bullets in the direction of undercover cops.

By the time it was all over, five officers had been shot. One officer was killed, Marc Anthony DiNardo, Mary's husband.

Almost four years later, she wants to know if department commanders made mistakes that day that cost Marc his life.

"I want to know. I have a right to know why my husband was killed. I have the right to know what happened. And I don't know why nobody wants to tell me," Mary DiNardo said.

There is surveillance video of the moments leading up to the deadly shootout. The suspects were being closely monitored by surveillance cameras. The video shows them moving their car, going into a building, and then the beginning of the shootout.

The exclusive video also shows cops setting up a perimeter, monitoring the rear of the building where the suspects were hold up, until the ESU team moves in. The ambulance comes next after the shootout is over.

"The department has got to look at this in a couple of ways. Was the training adequate? What can we learn from this?" said Joe Giacalone, professor at John Jay College.

Since the shooting, Jersey City Police have not revealed information about lessons learned.

But privately, members of the tactical team tell Eyewitness News that they "lacked training", information about the location of the suspects, and they say it led to "flawed decision making".

Chief Tom Comey released a statement denying all that saying, "It was a methodical search of the building. All officers involved, were qualified and competent to make the entry. The response was appropriate given the situation and the manner in which it unfolded."

But Mary DiNardo still has questions about how it all unfolded, as did Marc's dad, Paul.

He is a former Jersey City Police officer who said about the department, "They still won't come clean."

He died on Christmas Day still wondering when Mary and Marc's children would get the answers they want.

"I want to know the truth and maybe I can make a difference for those guys down there. So it won't happen to anyone else. So nobody else is not going to grow up without a father and lose their husband or their wife," Mary DiNardo said.

---

Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.