New Jersey Cop Charged with Misconduct After Ignoring 911 Calls of a Double Murder, Instead Stopping for Pizza

A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors say he didn’t immediately respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, and instead stopped at an ATM and pizzeria.

Franklin township police sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of 1 August when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 60 miles from Manhattan in central New Jersey, according to Hunterdon county prosecutor Renée Robeson’s office.

GPS Data and Surveillance Video Showed Bollaro Stopped at an ATM and Pizzeria Before Responding to the Call

However, instead of responding to the call, prosecutors say, GPS data and surveillance footage showed Bollaro drove nearly 2 miles in the opposite direction of the caller’s location. Dispatchers relayed other calls from concerned neighbors as Bollaro proceeded towards their locations without activating his police vehicle’s emergency lights and sirens, they said.

When he arrived at the location of the first caller, the officer told the dispatcher he didn’t hear anything and that he would continue to the locations of the other callers. But Robeson’s office said GPS data shows he never even visited those locations before he asked the dispatcher to clear him from the scene.

They say Bollaro instead headed to Duke’s Pizzeria in Pittstown, where he remained for nearly an hour. Witnesses later saw him park his car and enter another local restaurant, where he spent roughly another hour, said prosecutors.

Bollaro Accused of Making False Statements in His Report

Bollaro later submitted a report in which prosecutors say he made false statements about the extent of his investigation. They note that during the timeframe he claimed to be canvassing the area, the officer was already on route to the pizzeria.

The following day, 2 August, the bodies of Lauren Semanchik, 33, and her boyfriend, Tyler Webb, 29, were found in a home roughly 600ft (183 meters) away from the location of the first 911 caller. Prosecutors say the two had been shot to death by Semanchik’s ex and New Jersey state police lieutenant Ricardo Santos, who later killed himself, as previously reported.

Bollaro has been charged with official misconduct for knowingly refraining from performing his police duties, prosecutors said. He also faces a charge of tampering with public records for knowingly making false entries in his incident report. Bollaro is due to appear in court 5 November.