Fair Lawn, NJ officer killed in shootout

News 12 ^ | 04.18.03

[Coleus]

Fair Lawn policewoman's name is added to memorial

Thursday, May 22, 2003 By RAGHURAM VADAREVU STAFF WRITER

Photo by: BETH BALBIERZ

Police officers bowing their heads Wednesday as the honor roll was read during the annual Bergen County memorial service for fallen officers.

Two decades ago, David Boone saw Mary Ann Collura's zeal for police work up close - before Collura had even become an officer.

The two Fair Lawn police reserves were in a patrol car on a snow-covered road when they received a report of a large knife fight nearby. The regular officers were just beginning a shift at headquarters, a good distance away. So, with Collura driving, the two neophytes closed in.

THE PRICE
By Det. David Boone, Fair Lawn PD

---

They say that the ultimate price is a life,

A life that is lived for others!

They say that the ultimate price can't be paid,

Unless that life is given for others.

The men and women that we honor here,

Have all lived their lives for others!

The men and women who served us in blue,

Have given their lives for others!

And so on this day we ever reflect,

On those who have given their lives!

They paid the price with their very lives,

That safety might reign for others!

A block away, Boone stopped her. They should wait for backup, he urged.

"Even in her 20s, she was willing to put her life on the line," Boone, now a Fair Lawn detective, said at the annual Bergen County memorial service Wednesday for officers who died in the line of duty.

Rain forced the event indoors at the Law and Public Safety Institute in Mahwah. Attending were, among others, Collura's family, Sheriff Joel G. Trella, Prosecutor John Molinelli, County Executive Dennis McNerney, and a few hundred police officers in suits or dress blues.

Collura, 43, was the first woman to have her name etched on the shiny, gray memorial outside the entrance to the academy. There are 38 names on the memorial.

An 18-year borough veteran and Fair Lawn's first female officer, Collura was fatally shot April 17 as she backed up a Clifton patrolman.

Moments earlier, Omar Marti had led Clifton Officer Steven Farrell on a car chase that ended outside a River Road church in Fair Lawn. As Farrell tried to subdue him, Marti pulled and fired a handgun, wounding the Clifton officer and killing Collura. Marti, who authorities said sold drugs and guns with his family, died days later in a shootout with police in Florida.

"A call for assistance from another department was all it took - Mary Ann was on her way," Fair Lawn Police Chief Rodman Marshall told those at the service, including Farrell. "She was killed by a piece of garbage masquerading as a human being.

"We'll never know who was saved because those drugs weren't sold or that gun wasn't bought and used by another criminal."

Throughout the hour-long service,

organized by the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association and the Bergen County Police Benevolent Association Conference, speakers repeated the annual wish that no new names ever be added to the wall.

But, given the nature of the job, they acknowledged that more names are inevitable - especially as officers assume new responsibilities in preventing and responding to terrorism.

"Hopefully we can go a few years without adding another name," Trella said.

A longtime borough resident, Collura attended Fair Lawn High School and joined the force in 1985, fulfilling her life's dream. She had attended William Paterson College and spent three years as a volunteer with the Fair Lawn Police Reserves before joining the Police Department.

Now a police chaplain, Boone recited a poem he wrote long before Collura's death. Among the lines:

They paid the price with their very lives

That safety might reign for others!

The playing of taps and a 21-gun salute were among the tributes at the observance, which has been held annually at the academy since 1965. As the service concluded, officers from a dozen police departments and other groups placed wreaths at the 7-foot-high memorial wall.

They returned to the auditorium, where officers from Fair Lawn PBA Local 67 showed Collura's mother, Helen, a memorial stone engraved with her daughter's name. On the verge of tears, Helen Collura pulled a black drape from the stone. Then she walked back to her seat in the front row alongside other loved ones.

The stone will be inserted into the walkway at the memorial.

Raghuram Vadarevu's e-mail address is vadarevu@northjersey.com

[jdontom]

Thanks for starting this thread and your continued bumps of information.....I know you post both sides of good cop bad cop, and thats appreciated. Some posters flippen remarks while sitting in front of a computer screen bad mouthing any cop is sometimes to much for me to take, would like to see their reaction while taking deadly fire from some perp eager to blow their head off, its easy to talk trash in the security of your home, I'll take my partner as a back up any day............Again thanks for posting, will look for more of your threads and any updates on this one......Stay Safe

[Coleus]

Fair Lawn police say thank you

Thursday, June 12, 2003

By CHARLES AUSTIN
STAFF WRITER

FAIR LAWN - Today the same "long arm of the law" that nabs suspects on the run will reach across the miles to embrace fellow officers who risk their lives.

Two Fair Lawn police officers are carrying their department's thanks to Florida, where cops tracked down the man believed to have slain Fair Lawn Officer Mary Ann Collura on April 17.

The suspect, Omar Marti of Passaic, was killed three days later as he exited his vehicle firing at police in Florida.

Detective Lt. Robert Kneer and Officer David Boone are scheduled to accompany Mayor David Ganz and Councilman Allan Caan for presentations to sheriffs' departments in Hernando and Sumter counties in Florida. Ceremonies are scheduled for this afternoon at the headquarters of both departments and will include representatives of other Florida law enforcement agencies.

Sumter County Sheriff William Farmer said the presentations of certificates and keys symbolize the brotherhood of the police community.

"We're sworn to protect and serve the public, and we take it very seriously when something happens to one of our own, wherever they are," Farmer said. "We consider it a great honor for the mayor and the others to be coming down here."

Some of the Sumter County officers, who finally halted Marti's car with "stop strips" that ripped out the tires of his car, didn't know they were pursuing a suspected cop killer, the sheriff said, "but it was clear to us that he wanted to get away or die."

Hernando County Sheriff Richard Nugent said his officers initiated the chase when they spotted Marti that Easter - based on tips from New Jersey - and had already called for a SWAT team when Marti jumped in his car and began firing out the back window. Nugent said he was thankful that no officers were hurt by the shots Marti fired from several weapons. The Hernando County officers were especially alert to the danger because officers from the department had been involved in several shootouts in the past two years.

"And we just came back from a funeral" a few days before, the sheriff explained. He said his officers were mourning the loss of a deputy in a nearby county shot just two weeks before his scheduled retirement.

Mayor Ganz said that certificates and keys would be presented to 15 individuals and about a dozen Florida law enforcement agencies involved in tracking and apprehending Marti.

For the mayor, the trip is "a chance to pay tribute and homage to those able to risk their lives to bring closure to the Fair Lawn community and all who mourn the life of Officer Collura."

But he said the night before his departure "I hope I never have to do this again."

[Coleus]

Three win stipends to honor slain cop

Friday, June 13, 2003
By CHARLES AUSTIN, STAFF WRITER

FAIR LAWN - One will work toward a business degree and play football at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Another will study journalism at Arizona State University. A third will enter Ramapo College, preparing to don the uniform of a police officer.

The high school seniors - Alan Annazone, Brian Camen, and Michael Franco - are the first recipients of scholarships given by the Fair Lawn Policemen's Benevolent Association in memory of borough Officer Mary Ann Collura, slain in the line of duty April 17.

Detective David Delucca said the scholarships were designed to give special honor to Collura as "a police officer who was strong, vibrant, full of life, and believed in her family and her community." The PBA intends to present the scholarships annually, with money collected in a special fund created shortly after her death April 17.

Collura, an 18-year veteran of the Fair Lawn police force, was shot and killed on the front lawn of Van Riper-Ellis Broadway Baptist Church in Fair Lawn as she tried to apprehend a fleeing suspect.

Camen, the journalism student, said it was "definitely a high honor to get an award like this at this time." Franco said he would always consider the slain officer as an example to follow in his own law enforcement career. Annazone and Franco will each receive $1,000, and Camen's scholarship is for $500.

Though hundreds of awards were presented for academic honors and in memory of deceased residents of Fair Lawn, Delucca was the only presenter who made brief remarks to the more than 1,000 seniors, teachers, and parents gathered for the annual awards ceremony. Collura was a graduate of Fair Lawn High.

Other awards also honored the murdered officer. The Fair Lawn Athletic Club Old Timer's Scholarship - a $1,500 award - was given in memory of Collura to Manan Naik, and a $400 scholarship in her memory was given to Kelly Hughes by the Fair Lawn All Sports Association.

The awards were presented at a two-hour-long ceremony at the high school Thursday morning. Though the memory of the murdered officer injected solemn moments into the annual ritual, the mood was upbeat as students marched to the stage to hug their teachers and receive the honors. Applause filled the auditorium when the names of seniors entering military service - one through the U.S. Military Academy at West Point - were read.

A guidance counselor who presented several scholarships drew laughs when she mistakenly announced a $1,000 award as a $100,000 scholarship. Students loudly cheered their friends' achievements, and some chuckled when a classmate received a scholarship from the International House of Pancakes, one of several local businesses that honored seniors.6390866