A New Jersey grand jury has handed up an indictment against a police sergeant over the way he responded to a deadly emergency, News 12 New York reported. Sergeant Kevin Bolero, 52, who serves in Franklin, was charged Thursday and faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty, after authorities concluded he failed to follow several police procedures during the response.
The case centers on a harrowing sequence of events in which a state trooper fatally shot his former girlfriend and her boyfriend before turning the gun on himself. As the violence unfolded, Bolero was among the officers who were supposed to be rushing toward the scene to confront the danger.
Instead of heading to the emergency, prosecutors say, the sergeant went in the opposite direction, stopping at a bank to use an ATM. According to authorities, it took him nearly 20 minutes to respond to a wave of 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming as the attack was taking place.
Investigators outlined additional lapses in the sergeant's conduct that night. Prosecutors say Bolero never activated his body camera during the response and, in their assessment, basically mailed it in, pointing to a series of departures from the standard protocol expected of an officer in such a situation.
What drove the sergeant's decisions remains unexplained. Officials have not offered a motive for his actions, and News 12 noted that it is still unclear why an officer would steer away from an active and lethal emergency rather than move toward it as his colleagues were doing.
The grand jury's action now pushes the matter toward the courts, where Bolero could face up to a decade behind bars if a jury convicts him. The central question going forward will be why the sergeant did not respond as the deadly emergency demanded, a failure that prosecutors say carried serious consequences.