WWW.NJCOPSMAGAZINE.COM ■ DECEMBER 2014
57
2014 Valor Awards – Unit Citation
Nailing a Grinch who tried to steal during Christmas
On Dec. 13, 2013, Hamilton Township Local 66 officers were
dispatched to Kmart for a shoplifting in progress. Sergeant Joseph
Wilk met with the store’s loss prevention officers, who walked him
through the parking lot to point out the suspect who was standing between two cars.
Wilk confronted the suspect, who pulled a razor knife from his
jacket pocket, advanced on the officer and said, “You ain’t looking for me. I ain’t goin’ nowhere!”
Sergeant Wilk drew his duty weapon and ordered the suspect
to stop advancing and drop the weapon. The suspect then turned
and walked away while still holding the knife. Wilk radioed that
the suspect had a knife and was walking through the parking lot.
Hamilton Township Police Officers Richard Rettzo, Thomas
Clugsten, Christopher DiMeo, Timothy Donovan and Michael
McGowan were searching the parking lot and immediately
responded to Wilk’s area, working to quickly to cut off the suspect’s avenue of escape and surround him in an attempt to keep
him contained because the parking lot was filled with civilians.
“The hard part was that there were shoppers for Christmas
coming out,” Wilk explained. “You had to watch what you were
doing, whether there was crossfire if you actually had to fire a
weapon.”
The suspect, who was later discovered to be out from two
homicide convictions and an escape conviction, was surrounded and ordered numerous times to drop the weapon, but he did
Sergeant Joseph Wilk, Police Officer Richard Rettzo,
Police Officer Thomas Clugsten, Police Officer
Christopher DiMeo, Police Officer Timothy Donovan,
Police Officer Michael McGowan
Hamilton Township Local 66
not comply. As Wilk sprayed the suspect in the eyes with his O.C.,
the suspect threw his knife at one of the officers. Continuing to
ignore commands, the suspect had to be taken to the ground
where he continued to resist. The officers were able to handcuff
the suspect and stop the threat.
“It was a team effort,” Wilk emphasized. “You respond to situations like this 100 times but you never expect somebody to pull
a knife on you. We saw a threat and took care of it. We acted as a
team and that’s how it’s supposed to be taken care of.”