New Jersey officer charged after going out for pizza instead of responding to shooting

Sometimes, you just gotta lounge at a pizzeria ... alone ... for an hour ... work-life balance, amirite?

A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors say he didn’t quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead stopping at an ATM and pizzeria.

Franklin township police sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of 1 August when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Manhattan in central New Jersey, according to Hunterdon county prosecutor Renée Robeson’s office.

Rather than responding immediately, prosecutors say, GPS data and surveillance video show Bollaro drove nearly 2 miles in the opposite direction of the caller’s location to a bank ATM.

Dispatchers relayed other calls from concerned neighbors as Bollaro proceeded towards their locations without activating his police vehicle’s emergency lights and sirens, they said.

When he arrived at the location of the first caller, the officer told the dispatcher he didn’t hear anything and that he would continue to the locations of the other callers. But Robeson’s office said GPS data shows he never visited those locations before he asked the dispatcher to clear him from the scene.

Must suck not to know how GPS works. For his sake, I hope that was an amazing pizza.