Wounded Jersey City Officer Dies

Wounded cop dies after clinging to life for several days after
gun battle in Jersey City
By Alicia Cruz
Senior writer
The Black Urban Times
Jersey City police officer Marc DiNardo was pronounced dead at 9:35 a.m. today, a week after he and another police officer were gravely wounded during a gunfight that began at 24 Reed Street, apartment 3B in the Lincoln Park section of Jersey City last week. What began as a simple stakeout escalated into a horrific blood bath when suspect, Hassan Shakur began firing at police after they stormed his apartment.

"It was like a horror movie," emergency medical technician August Johnson told the Daily News after rescuing one of the cops. "There was blood everywhere," said Johnson, who climbed to the third floor behind three cops wielding plastic shields. "Scary wasn't the word."

The 5 a.m. blood bath began as a stakeout, with Jersey City police waiting for Shakur to move his car, which was reported stolen out of Charleston, S.C. Shakur spotted an approaching cop, dropped his robe brandishing a pump-action shotgun and a strap of ammunition. His wife/co-hort, 22-year-old Amanda Anderson stopped to pick up Shakurs discarded robe and Shakur opened fire, officials said.

"He wanted a war," Jersey City Police Chief Thomas Comey said of suspect Hassan Shakur. "He wanted to go out in a blaze of glory."
Shakur and Anderson were suspects in the June 18 Jersey City robbery and shooting of a Jiffy Lube worker.

According to Shakur's sister, Monique Hosendove, her brother knew he was a wanted man. Hosendove begged Shakur to turn himself in to South Carolina authorities, but Shakur refused and gave detailed instruction on how he was to be laid to rest -- in Muslim tradition — if police should find him.
Shakur and Anderson retreated back into the Reed Street apartment building after wounding eight police officers and were later killed by police.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy said the police department and city government were shaken by the incident, but continuing to do their jobs."The emotional toll on the officers involved -- their families, the other members of their units and their chiefs -- has been enormous," Healy said Monday. "There were plenty of tears in the hospital Thursday and Friday and there will be more."

Officer DiNardo, a 10-year veteran of the police department, was described by family members as a fighter. He leaves behind a wife, a 3-year-old son and two daughters, ages 1 and 4.