14-year-old boy held in connection with fatal Newark police shooting

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a shooting Friday night that killed one Newark, New Jersey, police officer and injured another, Essex County officials said Saturday.

The boy, who was also injured, was charged with murder, attempted murder and possessing illegal weapons following the shooting, Theodore N. Stephens II, the Essex County prosecutor, said during a news conference Saturday. The boy’s name has not been released by authorities.

The officer who was killed was identified Saturday as Joseph Azcona, 26, a detective who had served with the Newark Police Department for five years. Azcona died just after 2:30 a.m. Saturday at University Hospital, officials said.

“These are officers who got up yesterday morning to do their job, to go outside and make sure our streets were safe,” Mayor Ras J. Baraka of Newark said at the news conference. He added that gun violence, especially among teenagers, was an urgent issue in the New Jersey city. “We just have to do a better job. I have to do a better job,” he said. “This is not a police problem. This is our collective problem.”

The shooting that killed Azcona broke out at 6:30 p.m. Friday near the corner of Broadway and Carteret Street, a busy intersection in the North Ward of Newark.

According to Stephens, Azcona and another Newark police officer had gone to the area to investigate a group of people who they believed were carrying illegal guns. The two officers approached the group in a police car and were met with gunfire. Azcona was struck while still inside the vehicle, Stephens said, and the other officer appeared to have been struck outside the car.

Both officers were taken to the hospital, where Azcona died hours later. The other officer, who was not identified Saturday, was recovering from non-life-threatening injuries at the hospital that morning, Stephens said.

Newark police have arrested five people in connection with the shooting, including the 14-year-old boy, who was also being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

“We need to focus laser sharp on trying to find the reason why this 14-year-old was in the situation that he was,” Stephens said during the conference. “He had a gun and felt he could use it against the police. That’s a crazy situation. That’s one that cannot go unchecked.”

Emanuel Miranda, Newark’s public safety director, praised Azcona, calling the intelligence unit he worked for the “best of the best.”

“Our heart is heavy right now,” Miranda said. “Our agency is hurting. We lost a true hero last night. His mother, his father and his brothers were at the hospital mourning him, grieving him. Our community is mourning.”

Matthew J. Platkin, New Jersey’s attorney general, expressed his condolences for Azcona and his support for the other officer in a statement on social media, lauding their work in the force. “I remain in awe of their sacrifice and commitment to protecting us all,” he wrote.

Azcona’s mother, Nereida Vargas, said in a brief interview Saturday that she and her family were struggling with the tragic news. Vargas had rushed to the hospital after learning of her son’s injuries, she said, and was at his side when he died Saturday morning.

She described her son, the youngest of her four children, as a warm person whose loss was deeply felt in their community.

“He has a lot of friends and a lot of family who loved him,” she said.

The shooting sent shock waves through the typically quiet North Ward, a working-class and largely Latino area in New Jersey’s largest city.

On Saturday afternoon, police officers from across the state, from North Bergen to Voorhees, gathered outside University Hospital to honor Azcona, solemnly saluting as his body was escorted by motorcade to a funeral home in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark.

In the nearby South Ward, neighbors and family stopped to watch as an informal procession worked its way toward the row home apartment where Azcona had lived.

“I’ve known him always as a good guy, and he always wanted to be a cop,” said Christina Colon, who grew up with Azcona from the time he was 5 years old. “It touches home for everybody. Somebody like that, you look at him like a brother.”

Juliam Rodriguez, a cousin, said it was easy to love Azcona — he had “so much life.”

“He wasn’t one of those people who remind you to cherish life,” Rodriguez said. “He would just do it, because life should always be like that.”

Inside a busy Dominican barbershop on Maple Avenue, Joel Reyes, Azcona’s barber and a close friend, said the officer had always been proud of his Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage.

“He had no complaints with this life,” Reyes said with tears in his eyes. “He had a lot of joy in his heart.”