By Nyier Abdou and Leslie Kwoh
The Star Ledger
NEWARK, N.J. — A police officer who recently joined his hometown force in Belleville was killed yesterday morning in a two-car crash that also seriously injured his partner in their patrol car.
Kenneth Santucci, 33, was killed in the accident in Nutley, near the Belleville border, as he and Melissa Corrado were responding to a police call. Corrado, 28, of Hopatcong suffered serious head injuries and broken ribs, Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said.
Santucci, a father of two boys whose wife is seven months pregnant, was the first Belleville officer killed in the line of duty since 1951, said Police Chief Joe Rotonda.
Santucci was also the third officer in New Jersey to die in a traffic accident in less than a month.
“You never expect it to hit home,” said fellow Belleville officer Anthony Weiners, president of the New Jersey State Policeman’s Benevolent Association.
Santucci, a former Newark police officer who joined the Belleville department in January, and Corrado, who joined the department in March, were headed south on Union Avenue, responding to a report of a suspicious person around 7:30 a.m., when their cruiser collided with a car at the intersection of Union and Hancox avenues, Dow said.
Santucci, who was driving, lost control of the cruiser and crashed into a utility pole between two homes, police said. Both officers were ejected from their car, Dow said.
It has not been determined whether the officers were wearing seat belts, she said.
Santucci was taken to Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, where he was pronounced dead. Corrado was taken to University Hospital in Newark. Her injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, Dow said.
No charges have been filed against the driver of the other vehicle, whom Dow identified as a 51-year-old woman from Bloomfield. The woman was taken to Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, treated and released, Dow said.
The police cruiser remained pressed into the pole yesterday afternoon, with the back window shattered and the hood crumpled. About half a block away, the other driver’s black Toyota faced the cruiser, its front bumper hanging and pieces of metal strewn across the street.
“It’s still a shock,” said Belleville Detective Rich Giordano.
WELL-KNOWN NEIGHBOR
Santucci grew up in Belleville in a close-knit family. His mother, Anna, had come to the township in Essex County nearly 50 years ago, and Santucci lived in the same three-family home with his mother and older sister, Gina, all his life, friends said.
Santucci initially worked as a registered nurse, but law enforcement was in his blood, Giordano said, and he made the switch in 2005. His uncle, also named Kenny, is a retired Newark police officer, and his cousin, Michael Santucci, is with the Kearny police force, Giordano said.
Neighbors and friends remembered Santucci as good-natured and outgoing, always laughing and joking. Camille DiCosta, 54, and her mother, Marie DiCosta, 86, live three doors down from the Santuccis and had known the officer since he was little.
“It’s really tragic. He was a good kid - a great guy,” Camille DiCosta said. “To go so young, with a nice family and with a baby on the way - that’s tragic.”
Neighbor Lucy Rispoli, whose daughter and Santucci had been in the same grade in school, recalled seeing Santucci and his wife taking evening strolls in the neighborhood.
“When the officer said the name - forget it, I went crazy,” said Rispoli, 57. “They’re good people, really good people.”
Before switching to his hometown force, Santucci worked with the Newark police’s narcotics unit as a plainclothes detective, said Derrick Hatcher, president of the Newark Fraternal Order of Police. Hatcher described Santucci as “an exceptional police officer” who was named officer of the month several times.
“To be in his company was a true blessing, because if you had a situation where you didn’t feel too well, he’d sit down with you and talk to you, and by the end you’d be laughing and joking,” Hatcher recalled.
Belleville Mayor Raymond Kimble said, “We hate to see any police officer lose their life in the line of duty, and our hearts and prayers go out to the family.”
STRING OF CRASHES
Weiners, of the state PBA, said he cannot recall a previous time when three officers died on duty in such a short period of time. “It’s numbing to get another phone call that’s been repeated over the last three weeks,” Weiners said in a statement. “It doesn’t seem possible that this can keep happening.”
On Aug. 12, North Brunswick Lt. Christopher Zerby, 41, was killed on Route 130 in the township. Zerby was a passenger in a rented Dodge Viper sports car driven by a fellow officer, Lt. Keith Buckley. The vehicle veered off the highway just south of Route 1 and slammed into a guardrail and utility pole. Buckley, an 18-year veteran of the force, was charged Friday with vehicular homicide.
On Aug. 22, Perth Amboy police officer Thomas Raji, 31, was killed when a car broadsided his cruiser on Route 1 in Woodbridge while Raji was transporting a prisoner to the Middlesex County jail. Another officer, Matthew Mercurio, 42, was injured. The driver of the other car was charged with vehicular homicide.
“This points out the everyday perils our officers face,” said Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura. He added that law enforcement officers across the state would be ready to help Santucci’s extended family through this crisis.
Copyright 2008 The Star-Ledger