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“Aristotle once said that ‘moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, and brave by doing brave acts’,” said City Police Chief Tom Comey. “This exemplifies the life and service of Marc DiNardo.”
DiNardo was among a group of officers ordered to storm an apartment where a gunman was holed up last week. Bullets began flying as soon as they rammed down the door. DiNardo was immediately shot in the face from about five feet away. He was pronounced dead today at 9:35 a.m. His body was then taken to Newark for an autopsy by a state Medical Examiner.
Jersey City through and through, DiNardo attended School 17, Hudson Catholic High School and then St. Peter’s College. He joined the force on St. Patrick’s Day 1999 and two years ago was promoted to the elite Emergency Services Unit, trained to handle any and all crises and emergencies. He received seven Excellent Police Service awards, two Commendations and a World Trade Center award.
He leaves behind his immediate family: Mary, his wife; their three children: Gwendolyn, 4, Marc Anthony II, 3, and Ella, 1; his father, retired Jersey City Police Lt. Paul DiNardo, and his mother, Mary; as well as extended family and loved ones.
Hospital officials said DiNardo’s family has agreed to donate his organs. City officials also said they have promoted him, and another officer who was seriously injured, to detective, which helps their respective families financially.
Marc Anthony DiNardo
“Marc was not a selfish man,” his family said in a statement yesterday. “He was a moral man, a man who gave of himself to those who could not care for themselves.”
The gunman and his wife, both suspects in a holdup in which a man was shot in the stomach, were killed in the close-quarters shootout.
The condition of another officer who was also critically wounded was upgraded to “serious but guarded.” The officer, 25-year-old Michael Camacho, was shot in the neck.
Also wounded by gunfire were Jersey City Officers Frank Molina, 35, and Marc Lavelle, 43, and Port Authority Officer Dennis Mitchell, 35. Three other officers were treated for minor injuries.
Officers had converged on the building after Hassain Hosendove, using a pump-action shotgun, blew out the windshield of an undercover police car occupied by officers on a stakeout.
Coroners pulled 19 bullets from Hosendove’s body, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said today. His wife, Amanda Anderson, took a single shot to the base of her skull, he said.
DeFazio said the autopsy results “speak for themselves.”
Donations in DiNardo’s name can be sent to a scholarship fund set up by the Jersey City Police Officers Benevolent Association at P.O. Box 17395, Jersey City, NJ 07307. Also the JCPOBA and New Jersey Blood Services will sponsor a blood drive in honor of DiNardo from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on July 22 at the Jersey City OEM headquarters at 715 Summit Avenue in Jersey City.
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