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A Jersey City cop was killed in a cold-blooded ambush outside a
Walgreens Pharmacy early Sunday by a violent nutjob who had boasted,
“I’m going to be famous,” officials said.
Officer Melvin Santiago was shot and killed while
responding to an armed robbery call at a Walgreens early on Sunday
morning.
Photo: AP
Officer Melvin Santiago, less than a year on the job, and his partner rolled up to Walgreens to answer a robbery call at 4:09 a.m. when the gunman came out of nowhere and blasted Santiago in the head as he opened the passenger-side door.
Minutes earlier, shooter Lawrence Campbell, 27, stabbed the store security guard in the arm and took his gun, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said.
Campbell then apologized to everyone in the store and said, “Watch the news later, I’m going to be famous,” according to Fulop.
Another patrol car was right behind Santiago’s and they got into a firefight with Campbell, who was killed, officials said.
Santiago’s grief-stricken mom, Cathy McBride, lashed out at her son’s killer outside her family home in Jersey City.
“This guy deserves nothing….His name should be forgotten,” McBride said while crying hysterically.
“Don’t give him any notoriety. He killed my son. My son was 23 and a good kid and didn’t deserve to get a bullet in his head doing his job, all because someone wanted to be famous.”
Unrelated to the Walgreens’ killing, Campbell and another man, Daniel Wilson, were both being sought in connection to a week-old Jersey City slaying, officials said.
Wilson is still on the lam and details of that homicide were not immediately available.
“Today was a horrible day for Jersey City,” Fulop said.
“It is a tragic situation when any officer is killed in the line of duty.”
Santiago, 23, was born and raised in Jersey City and always wanted to be a cop, officials said. His uncle is a retired Jersey City detective, and he graduated from the academy in December.
“Melvin was an officer who represented everything one would want to see in a police officer,” Fulop said.
“I know the entire city’s thoughts and prayers are with the Santiago family during this difficult time and we mourn together.”
Santiago’s next-door neighbor and longtime pal Gary Narwold called him a “great guy who loved what he did.”
“He wanted to work the West District, which is known around here as the Wild, Wild West,” Narwold said.
“It fits his character — he wanted the hardest district.”
Another friend, who gave his name as “Baruti,” 24, said Santiago “was real down-to-earth” and “a stand-up individual.”
“He was proud to be a cop — it was what he always wanted to do,” he added.
Newspaper deliveryman Jean Belviso had just arrived at Walgreens when he spotted the suspect — wearing burgundy sweatpants and a baseball cap — walk out of the Walgreens and toward the police cruiser.
“We thought he was running, coming toward us,” said Belviso, who was with a friend. “He kept on shooting.”
Santiago was rushed to Jersey City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Michael Lyon, a 55-year-old paralegal, said he hid in a locked bathroom in the pharmacy for about 15 minutes during the bloodshed.
“Everything was calm, and then I saw a woman jump over a counter [to run away], so I knew something bad was happening,” Lyon told The Post.
Lyon said that when cops came to the bathroom door, they treated like a potential suspect, but he didn’t mind. “I heard a knock, and someone told me, ‘Police!’ [so] I let them in,” Lyon said. “[Police officers] put me on the ground, but they were respectful. There’s two dead in this horrible incident.”
Santiago was the first cop killed in the line of duty in the city since July 2009. Detective Marc DiNardo was killed five years ago during a raid on an apartment searching for suspects in a robbery.
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