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John Kelly and fellow retired Tenafly Police Officer Joseph Grieco had bought a plot of land less than 100 yards from the New York State border in Glenwood, an unincorporated area within Vernon Township.
They were building a new home there and had taken an apartment nearby in the meantime, those who knew them said.
Vernon Township police were called to the residence around 1 a.m. last Wednesday, July 26, "for a discharge of a weapon with injuries," the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
A victim was taken to a local hospital, "where he later passed away," the statement says.
Authorities didn't say who they believed fired the gun. They did say that an investigation was continuing.
In an aching tribute to his partner of 14 years -- the past three of which he said they spent together every day -- Grieco wrote of how he "didn't understand the true heaviness" that Kelly's life had on his until that night.
"I wish that freak accident never happened," Grieco wrote, "but unfortunately freak accidents are always a game of what ifs… constant moments of steps that led to a single moment, followed by horrific grief."
Grieco, who was Tenafly's first openly gay police officer, was forced into retirement after an extended medical leave. He'd been suffering from what he told a Pride in Tenafly gathering last year were cardiac, neurological and mental issues caused by long COVID.
Friends said Grieco drew strength from the man he said was "always the better half."
"I remember first watching you sleep, so peacefully and I’d do so for years and years after, occasionally giving you a kiss on your forehead but not to wake you," Grieco wrote in tribute to his late husband. " Years filled with laughter, sadness, happiness, arguments, love, struggles that only we knew about.
"You brought happiness and smiles to so many people and you never even knew it, or rarely noticed it because it was so common anytime you walked into a space."
Kelly was deeply loved, indeed.
Hearts have been hurting in Englewood, where Kelly lived -- including for a time with Grieco --before they headed to Sussex County.
Kelly was on the Englewood Board of Adjustment and was a former president of the Board of Directors of The Residences at Flat Rock Square Condo Association and a former parliamentarian with the Englewood Democratic Club.
Mayor Michael Wildes said he appointed Kelly to positions "knowing full well he loved our [c]ity and was kind and caring."
Kelly "touched the lives of so many people and tried to improve conditions for those he loved," the mayor added. "He often represented me at functions and was gracious in his handling of delicate policy matters."
Arrangements haven't been publicly announced.
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