2018 NJSPBA Valor Awards
Meritorious Service Award
Lieutenant William Kelly
Watchung Local 193
On a mission for the missing
Lieutenant William Kelly of Watchung
Local 193 was driving home from work
near midnight on March 26 when he
observed a man walking with a child on
the shoulder of the highway. Something
about the way the two were walking and
the late hour told Kelly that something
was not right.
The officer pulled into a nearby parking
lot to observe the individuals and try to
get an idea of what they might be doing
out so late on the roadway. When the man
noticed Kelly watching, he picked up the
young girl and ran across the road, jump-
ing the barrier to the other side of the di-
vided highway.
Knowing that the child might be in
danger, Kelly sped around the highway
to catch up with the subjects. When he
caught up, the man suddenly grabbed the
child and began to run. Kelly exited his
vehicle and chased after them on foot un-
til they were cornered by a building and
forced to stop.
The man turned to Kelly while still
holding the girl and shouted, “Kill me, kill
her, kill us both.”
Using years of experience reasoning
with suspects on the scene, Kelly con-
vinced the disturbed man to let go of the
child. It was later learned that the young
girl was abducted from her grandparents’
house a few hours earlier. The suspect
was her uncle.
Kelly’s swift actions to follow his gut
on the job and ensure the child’s safe-
ty earned him the Meritorious Service
Award. Present to accept the award on his
behalf was Local 193 State Delegate Brad
Sporer, who has worked with Kelly for 20
Girl Power
When Neptune Township Officer Dom-
inique Russo chased down and appre-
hended a suspect who had been flashing
a gun, she didn’t intend to strike a blow for
equality. But as Russo related the details
that earned her a valor award for merito-
rious service, she was inspired to be an
inspiration to female officers throughout
the state.
“I hope it does. I hope it does inspire
other women,” Russo stated. “I’m 5-foot-
1. This guy was 6-foot-2. So, I hope just
because they’re women, they don’t think
they’re not as strong as men. They can do
it.”
Russo’s shift was about to end when she
was patrolling a high-crime area in town.
She heard a loud pop that sounded like a
gun shot. When she went to check it out,
she saw the subject standing among a
group of people pointing a gun.
She called out, and the man took off
running. Russo pursued in her patrol car
until the man headed into the backyard of
a residence and discarded the gun. Rus-
so got out and continued the chase. She
found the gun and ran him down as he
stumbled to the ground.
“After he got to the ground, he was like,
‘I give up. I give up,’” Russo shared. “A lot
of adrenaline going was through me. By
the time he was handcuffed, backup was
there. It felt like it was a 20-minute thing,
but it all happened in like two minutes.”
Her night at the NJ State PBA Valor
Awards was a lot like that night on Nov.
17, 2017. There was some running around
afterward. And her mind was racing, won-
dering how she got here.
Russo has been on with Neptune for
two years. Before that, she worked as Class
1 Special Officer for a year and a Class 2
Special for two years in Long Branch.
But what made her want to be in law
enforcement in the first place?
“I don’t know,” Russo confided. “Hon-
estly, my sister was like, ‘You need to get a
job and get your life together. Get into law
enforcement.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’”
Now, with her first big event on the job
Watchung Local 193 State Delegate Brad Sporer
accepted the award for Lieutenant William Kelly.
years.
“Everybody was just proud and sur-
prised at what happened,” Sporer con-
firmed at the 2018 NJSPBA Valor Awards
ceremony. “It was a job well done.”
Meritorious Service Award
Offi cer Dominique Russo
Neptune Township Local 74
under her duty belt, Russo found her re-
sponse that night to reinforce one of the
most valuable lessons on the job.
“Just be aware of your surroundings
at all times,” she explained. “Don’t get
complacent, either. Like I said, it was at
the end of a shift, so you think you’re just
going to cruise on home and that’s it. But
next thing you know, everything can turn
upside down.”
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ DECEMBER 2018 59