Evidence gathered by the Hudson County Prosecutor’s office from last week’s shooting of Mariano Vargas, 60, of West 24th Street, seems to indicate that police officers acted to defend themselves from an alleged attack on March 21, according to county prosecutor Edward DeFazio.
Police shot Vargas dead, claiming he tried to stab them.
DeFazio said the investigation showed that there was damage to the tip of the knife, likely from an attempted stabbing of an officer, but that it was blunted by the police officer’s shield.
“This is clear evidence that there was an attack on the police officer,” DeFazio said.
DeFazio said police responded to Vargas’ trailer after an off-duty female police officer, related to Vargas, asked them to check on him because he had allegedly been “acting out” and was not answering the phone. One neighbor said the off-duty officer had visited the trailer earlier in the day.
Although Vargas lived with his wife and child, they were away at the time. He was an employee of the Bayonne Department of Public Works.
When the police arrived, Vargas was inside, but would not answer the door when police officers knocked, DeFazio said.
The officers called for backup units and after about a half hour stand off, the police forced their way in through a back door.
Vargas, according to DeFazio, was in the living room with a large kitchen knife, allegedly threatening to kill the police.
An officer used a protective shield to get close, but could not disarm Vargas, DeFazio said.
Police sources said this was not the first incident with Vargas. In the late 1990s, Vargas allegedly threatened to kill himself with a shotgun, but he was never charged with any crime. In 2003, he allegedly slashed three police officers with a knife in a situation very similar to the one that transpired last week. He was sentenced to a year’s probation and received psychiatric treatment.
During the confrontation last week, the police officers fired, striking Vargas in the chest and the arm.
The body was transported to the state Regional Medical Examiner’s Office in Newark.
“As expected, the autopsy revealed the victim had died of multiple gun shot wounds to the chest and extremities,” DeFazio said. “The investigation is continuing. We have spoken to other people, reviewed radio transmissions and the 911 calls. When this is completed, it will be reviewed by the attorney general’s office.”
“This is clear evidence that there was an [alleged] attack on the police officer.” – Ed DeFazio
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Use of force questioned
Several attorneys with current lawsuits against the city for incidents of alleged use of excess force by the police department questioned the shooting.
FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics for use of force for 2011 are not yet available, but the report for 2010 shows there were 189 force incident reports filed on 93 officers during that year, with six officers accounting for more than 22 percent of these incidents.
But DeFazio said there is a process that is conducted each time there is a police shooting, fatal or not.
“If there is factual reason, then it would go before a Grand Jury,” he said. “But looking over the preliminary evidence, it appears that the shooting by the two officers was justified. There is a history here that must be taken into consideration.”
He said officers are justified in using force when their lives or the lives of others are threatened.
“The investigation is continuing, we have more do,” DeFazio said. “This is a tragic situation.”