Meritorious Service
Patrolman Michael J. Lynch, Jr. Manchester Local 246
Valor Awards
Sometimes your sixth sense knows what it’ s talking about. On July 31, 2016, Patrolman Michael Lynch responded to a 9-1-1 call for a man who was threatening suicide. The man himself had made the call and requested that police officers come to his location near a residence on Robin Street. Right from the start, Lynch was more concerned than usual.
“ Something was odd about the call,” said Lynch.“ The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I had a weird feeling that things weren’ t going to go right.”
Patrolman Lynch’ s instincts proved correct, as the distraught 18-year-old was armed with a large knife. Lynch made contact with the man, attempting to calm him down. Their dialogue deteriorated, however, and the man began to advance toward him.
Lynch and other officers gave the man“ commands to relax, surrender and to drop his weapon,” according to a statement from the Ocean County Prosecutor’ s Office. The man refused and continued to walk toward them in a threatening manner. When he refused to obey repeated commands, Patrolman Lynch fired one shot at him, and the man fell to the ground.“ He didn’ t give us too much of a choice,” said Lynch. Lynch and other officers immediately gave first aid to the man. He was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Officers later learned that the man was at the residence because he
Following his instincts
was cleaning it, along with his mother. Investigators found a handwritten note near the man, written just before he dialed 9-1-1, saying that he intended to commit suicide by officer. He also apologized to the officer who would respond to his call.
Lynch spent 10 years on the regional SWAT team in Ocean County, and this is the second time that he’ s been involved in a shooting. He said he has been trying to lay low since the incident and is honored but anxious about receiving the meritorious award.
“ It’ s a little overwhelming,” he said.“ Seeing everyone applaud me tonight reminds me that this career is truly a brotherhood and sisterhood.” d
Meritorious Service
Sergeant Christine Auleta Corporal James Kennedy Officer Michael DeCandia Branchburg Local 397
Found in translation
On Sept. 23, 2016, Sergeant Christine Auleta, Corporal James Kennedy and Officer Michael DeCandia responded to a report of a man walking through the American Stray-Tech warehouse and threatening his coworkers with a knife.
Officer DeCandia was the first to arrive on scene and initially walked past the man, not realizing that he was the subject in question.
“ DeCandia walked into the main area where all of the workers were, and the man tried to sneak by him,” said Corporal Kennedy.“ I think somebody kind of pointed him out, and DeCandia handled the situation.”
Sergeant Auleta arrived a few minutes later, and her language skills were helpful in communicating with the suspect.
“ There was a huge language barrier,” said Corporal Kennedy.“ He was speaking all Spanish; most of the workers spoke Spanish as well. That was one of the issues as we were trying to talk to him and Officer DeCandia was trying to disarm him.”
Auleta, who is fluent in Portuguese but also speaks Spanish, was able to communicate with the man, and she began giving him commands to drop the knife. He then put his hands on the wall and let the officers approach. They patted him down in a very tight stairwell. As the officers attempted to handcuff him, however, he reached for DeCandia’ s weapon.
“ I don’ t know if he misunderstood, whether he was under arrest or we were just cuffing him for safety purposes,” Kennedy said,“ but he just flipped out and started punching and kicking and grabbed for Officer DeCandia’ s gun at that point.”
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A violent struggle ensued. After repeated punches and kicks to the officers from the man, the officers were finally able to subdue him.
Kennedy credits the officers’ training in allowing them to handle the situation safely and prevent the man from harming any of the nearly 100 employees on site.
“ It’ s being confident in the people you work with and knowing they’ re handling it,” he said.“ You take the proper precautions for every situation. You just assume the worst. Assume the person is not going to be compliant, so that’ s where the training comes in.” He also expressed gratitude for the safe resolution to this incident.“ You just be thankful that everybody was able to handle it with very little injuries or problems,” he said.“ Nobody got stabbed or anything. Bruises heal.” d