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Jersey City officials admitted in the days after DiNardo was killed that the elite team didn’t know who was on the other side of the door when they were ordered to force it open.
It turned out to be Hassian Hosendove, who immediately opened fire, hitting the 37-year-old, ten-year veteran with a shotgun blast to the face. Squad members shot and killed Hose dove — who earlier had wounded four other officers — and his girlfriend.
DiNardo’s wife and family made the decision to take him off life support five days later.
At the time, Deputy Chief Peter Nalbach said he made the call to go in.
“I don’t like the result but it was the right decision at the time,” Nalbach said.
Mary DiNardo’s notice of intent to sue the city cites lost wages, in addition to pain and suffering.
Documents filed with the court include a letter from city Law Department saying the widow’s request for the investigation report was denied under the state Open Public Records Act because it is a “criminal investigatory file.”
According to The Jersey Journal:
“The initial notice of claim against Jersey City and unnamed others alleges DiNardo died because his unit was not properly trained, the Police Department did not have procedures in place for the situation, didn’t follow procedures, failed to establish proper chain of command, failed to provide proper safety gear, and tactical decisions were made by someone untrained to do so.
“Named in the petition to preserve evidence are Jersey City, the Jersey City Police Department, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office and the Port Authority Police Department.”
That evidence includes radio recordings, videotapes, investigation reports, witness statements and training records.
The chain of events leading to DiNardo’s death were set in motion when Hosendove. an armed robber whom police were tailing. pulled out a shotgun one morning and blasted out the windshield of an unmarked police car, clipping a cop in the leg.
Marc Anthony DiNardoThe thug and his girlfriend then holed up in an apartment in an otherwise working-class neighborhood dotted with drug dealers.
The brass sent the A team — the Special Response unit, including DiNardo. Police not only cleared the building, they got neighbors out of the line of fire. Then they took positions.
Any and all civilians were out of harm’s way. There were no hostages.
Before long, the order came down. No sooner had they rammed down the door than Hosendove, standing five feet away, opened fire, striking DiNardo on the side of the face and sending him into a state of unconsciouness from which he never recovered.
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