Mary DiNardo has filed a federal suit against Jersey City and the Chief of Police, Tom Comey

To Johnny there are really two parts to this story. First the procedural. Mary DiNardo, widow of Jersey City Detective Marc DiNardo, who was killed storming a Reed Street apartment on July 16, 2009, has filed a Federal suit against Jersey City and JCPD Chief Tom Comey.

The Jersey Journal points out the procedural wrangling in this case:

Barring extraordinary circumstances, Mary DiNardo had 90 days to give notice that she intended to sue, but she did not file the $10 million notice of tort until June 2010.

She argued the delay was due to her emotional distress and because the Police Department refused to give her a copy of its report on the fatal shooting of her husband. Loftis said police “stonewalled” the widow and still have not given her the report.

Messy horrible stuff. We feel terribly for Mrs. DiNardo. We also have an awful lot of respect for the JCPD who protect us from animals like Hassan Shakur and Amanda Anderson. There is however a looked over fact in this case that has bothered Johnny since that terrible day.

The second part has an awful lot to do with a quote from Sun Tzu's The Art of War "A skilled commander seeks victory from the situation and does not demand it of his subordinates." This very idea is part of Mrs. DiNardo's new lawsuit where it says "tactical decisions were made by someone untrained to do so." Now this MAY hold merit. Once Shakur and Anderson were holed up in their apartment and the rest of the Reed St. building had been evacuated, what exactly was the rush to go in? You then have all the time in the world to wait them out, strategize and not put Marc DiNardo and the other four officers who were shot into harm's way. The building was evacuated. The tactical choice is not to shoot your way into a room. The tactical choice would be to tear gas the room and wait for the two criminals to come out to YOUR fortified position. Make them come to you, don't bust in a door and make an easy target for a man with a shotgun. Police knew Shakur had a shotgun, he'd fired it at them as this situation began to unfold around 5:30 am as seen in this clip released by the JCPD. Yep, that's a shotgun alright.


It just makes no damned sense.

Chief Comey released a statement saying “We disagree completely with the allegations made by the attorney for Mrs. DiNardo and as this matter is still in litigation we are not going to comment any further other than to say that when all of the evidence and facts are presented, the city’s position will once again be affirmed.”

We had a feeling this sad day was coming, now we hope Mrs. DiNardo and her children can somehow find peace after this violent episode that has taken something from all of us here in Jersey City.