A chilling incident of police indifference occurred in New Jersey with a police officer charged with dereliction of duty after, prosecutors say, he did not immediately respond to or properly investigate reports of a shooting that ultimately turned out to be a double homicide, instead stopping at an ATM and a pizzeria.
As the New Jersey police officer went to an ATM, pizzeria and restaurant, a 33-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man were shot by the police lieutenant, who then killed himself.
Officer Kevin Bolaro was on duty the evening of August 1, 2025, when police received 911 calls about shootings and screaming, according to Hunterdon County District Attorney Renee Robeson’s office.
Instead of going to the scene immediately, according to prosecutors, data from GPS and security cameras show that Bolaro drove nearly 3 kilometers in the opposite direction to go to a bank and use the ATM.
Story here https://t.co/e1zbveIDAI | An investigation has revealed Sgt. Kevin Bollaro was dispatched to the area, but instead of immediately responding, he drove a mile and half in the opposite direction to a bank to use the ATM. pic.twitter.com/swIbOhw3If
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) October 24, 2025
As operators received a “rain” of calls from worried residents, Bolaro headed for their homes, without lights or sirens.
When he got to the location of the first call, he told the operator that he didn’t hear anything and was going to check the other locations. But according to GPS data, he never visited those spots before asking to be removed from the incident, the Guardian reports.
Instead, he went to one pizzeria and sat there for almost an hour. Witnesses said they later saw him go to another restaurant, where he remained for another hour.
Bolaro later filed a report in which he wrote false information about what happened in his investigation. At the time he claimed to be surveying the area, evidence shows he was already heading to the pizzeria.
New Jersey State Police Lieutenant killed his ex-girlfriend and her lover all the while another police officer, named Kevin Bollero, decided to have pizza instead of timely responding to the murder after being dispatched several times. The dead couple was discovered by the… pic.twitter.com/f3rHUFZkpM
— Jennifer Coffindaffer (@CoffindafferFBI) October 26, 2025
The next day, on August 2, the bodies of 33-year-old Lauren Semanczyk and 29-year-old Tyler Webb were found in a house just 180 meters from the scene of the first call to immediate action. Prosecutors say the two were fatally shot by New Jersey State Police Lt. Ricardo Santos, who then killed himself.
Bolaro is charged with dereliction of duty for knowingly failing to perform his duties, as well as tampering with public documents for putting false information on his report, and is expected to appear in court on November 5.
His attorney, Charles Ciarra, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a statement to the New York Post called the charges “disgusting” and argued that “nothing Kevin Bolaro did or did that day affected or could have prevented the murders.”
The families of the two victims said they are “shocked by Sergeant Bolaro’s gross negligence” and believe this is “just the tip of the iceberg of many mistakes by local and state police” in the case, according to WABC-TV.