Officials say shot Jersey City officer won't survive

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - A Jersey City police officer critically wounded in a shootout with two robbery suspects last week was placed on life support and is not expected to survive, officials said yesterday.

"Officer Marc DiNardo's condition has deteriorated, and his demise is imminent," Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey said.

The 37-year-old was hit in the face with a shotgun blast on Thursday as he and other officers attempted to storm an apartment.

DiNardo showed no signs of life when he arrived at Jersey City Medical Center and had to be revived several times.

His family issued a statement over the weekend calling him "a fighter" and thanking the community for its "overwhelming support and prayers." The 10-year veteran has a 3-year-old son and two daughters, ages 1 and 4.

"He will be greatly missed. He had a personality you could never forget, and when he walked into a room we all loved him," said Officer Melissa Bartholomew, a friend and police academy classmate.

Bartholomew said the family would donate DiNardo's organs.

Five officers were injured by buckshot and solid shotgun slugs during the close-quarters gunfight that followed in a nearby apartment building. Robbery suspects Hassan Shakur, 32, and his wife, Amanda Anderson, 22, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Officer Michael Camacho, who was initially listed in critical condition for a gunshot wound to the neck, was upgraded to serious but guarded condition Sunday.

DiNardo and Camacho, 25, were the first SWAT officers in Shakur's apartment during the assault, which began when a battering ram smashed the steel door open. Shakur was five feet away and opened fire as the door swung open. He and Anderson were wanted in connection with a June 18 armed robbery in Jersey City, in which a man was shot in the stomach with the shotgun. They were suspected of a similar robbery in South Carolina.

Shakur was buried in Jersey City yesterday in a traditional Muslim ceremony. Beforehand, his sister offered an emotional apology for her brother's actions.

"I want to apologize to the state of New Jersey for the terror that my brother brought upon your city," said Monique Hosendove, who traveled from Hampton, S.C., for the funeral.

"I am so sorry to the families of all the officers," she said, adding that she was especially sorry to hear of DiNardo's worsening condition. "We were praying so hard for him to pull through."

"My family is grieving the loss of my brother, because we didn't understand what was inside his head that would make him hurt people when he was such a lovely person - the one we knew."

According to autopsies on Shakur and Anderson released yesterday, 19 bullets were found in Shakur's body.

"There were numerous wounds - to the head, torso, and extremities," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.

Anderson died of a gunshot wound to the base of the skull and was also hit in the hand, he said.

DeFazio said Shakur fired his shotgun 10 times - three outside his apartment and seven from inside. At least six officers fired more than 50 times inside the apartment complex. DeFazio said that number was high because at least two of the weapons police used were automatic.

DiNardo had arrested Shakur in 2002 on a charge of illegal firearms possession.