By Joan Verdon
Herald News
PASSAIC COUNTY, NJ — The Fair Lawn Police Department held its eighth memorial service for slain Officer Mary Ann Collura on Sunday, and for the first time gathered to remember her at the place where she was killed, on the grounds of the Van Riper-Ellis/Broadway Baptist Church on River Road.
When Collura was shot and killed on April 17, 2003, “it bothered me that it happened on holy ground,” said Fair Lawn PBA Local 67 President and chaplain David Boone. Now, Boone said, the church grounds, which are marked with a monument to Collura, and a flowering tree planted in her honor “have become a very comforting place for me because it is holy ground.”
This year, Boone said, also marked the first time that the anniversary of Collura’s death fell during Holy Week, on Palm Sunday. Collura was killed on Holy Thursday in 2003, three days before Easter. A Clifton police officer was wounded in the same incident.
Police officers attending the service said the non-fatal shooting of Paramus Police Officer Rachel Morgan in January after a similar chase was another reminder of how officers frequently put their lives on the line, even when making what seems to be a routine traffic stop.
Holding the annual memorial service at the place where Collura was killed made the ceremony especially poignant for some of the 80 officers, firefighters, ambulance squad members and local residents who attended the service. Vicky Prince, who lives two blocks away from the church, remembered how she heard shots ring out on that Thursday night eight years ago, and rushed to the scene.
“There must have been 30 police cars at the church,” she said. “I was standing with a group of people and a Clifton officer walked by and we asked him if any officers were down. He said ‘One of ours and one of yours.’ We couldn’t believe it,” she said. Her husband, Peter, remembers being impressed with Collura, Fair Lawn’s first female officer, when he saw her in town -- and wrote a song in her honor called “The Ultimate Sacrifice,” which later was made into a CD sold to raise money for a scholarship in Collura’s name. Prince said Sunday he remembers Collura as a “very strong, complete woman.”
Collura’s death “seems like yesterday to a lot of us,” said Fair Lawn Police Chief Eric Rose, as he joined the crowd gathered around Collura’s monument before the start of the ceremony. “Obviously we here to recognize Mary Ann’s sacrifice, but we’re also here to remember Mary Ann’s life and the long list of her positive achievements.”
Former Police Chief Bob Van Houten, also among those paying their respects, remembered how he came to be the chief who offered Collura a job on the force in 1985. The borough manager called him and said the next candidate on the police hiring list was a woman and asked if he wanted her. “I said she’s qualified, she grew up here, she knows the town. Of course I’ll take her,” Van Houten recalled.
Collura was the first woman hired by the Fair Lawn Police Department. She spent three years as a Fair Lawn police reservist before she began her 18-year career as an officer, a job her family described as a lifelong dream. She received five medals for exceptional service during her career.
Collura was shot and killed by Omar Marti, 23, of Passaic, who was fleeing Clifton Police Officer Steven Farrell. The Nissan Marti was driving as he fled Farrell, who had been trying to pull him over for speeding on Route 46, jumped the curb in front of the church and went onto the lawn. Marti ran toward the back of the church, chased by Farrell. Collura heard about the chase on her police radio and arrived at the scene. Marti pulled out a pistol and fired two fatal shots into Collura, and wounded Farrell in the arm and leg.
A bronze sculpture depicting a uniformed Collura giving glow necklaces to a boy and a girl dressed in Halloween costumes stands at the Fair Lawn municipal building. Collura launched a Halloween safety program in 1999 that gave glow sticks to trick-or-treaters to make them more visible on Halloween.
Boone said the annual memorials will continue “forever.” He is planning a special evening vigil for April 17, 2014, when the day, for the first time since 2003, will coincide with Holy Thursday.
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