Husband, Wife Describe Killing Of Lakewood Cop

Denise Scalzo had just gotten home from work and was planning to head to the gym. Her husband, Leonard, got home at almost the same time, pulling in behind her in the driveway of their Lakewood home, only to be told by his wife to move the car.

With her on the stoop and him at the end of the driveway, both saw a police car roll up alongside a young man on the snow-covered road. Moments later, they said, he pulled out a gun and blasted the officer three times, leaving him writhing in agony behind the wheel of his police cruiser.

“Oh, my God! Oh, my God, he’s gonna die!” Denise Scalzo screamed to a police dispatcher on a 911 call. “He went right up to the cop and shot him three times! I saw it! Please send somebody quickly! He’s gonna die!”

Her husband yelled, “Run!” He raced to the side of his house, jumped over a fence and made his own 911 call.

“Officer down, August Drive!” he yelled. “Officer shot! Officer down!”

TEARS IN THE COURTROOM

Several jurors wiped away tears as they listened to recordings of the couple’s 911 calls on the second day of testimony in the trial of Jahmell Crockam, the 20-year-old man charged with murdering Lakewood Patrolman Christopher Matlosz on Jan. 14, 2011.

Asked in court if he saw the man who shot the officer that afternoon, Leonard Scalzo pointed to Crockam and said, “Right there.”

The Scalzos’ testimony came a day after their neighbor, Aaron Pitter, also identified Crockam in court as the shooter.

Crockam’s lawyer says police arrested the wrong man and questions the reliability of the witnesses. He conducted a lengthy cross-examination of Leonard Scalzo designed to undermine his credibility.

Defense lawyer Mark Fury cited a profane racial reference that Leonard Scalzo, who is white, made on the 911 call toward the black suspect. He also highlighted Scalzo’s assertion to the dispatcher that if he had a gun at the time, he would have shot the man who shot the officer.

That comment was made during Leonard Scalzo’s emotional rant to the dispatcher about how drug dealers have proliferated in his neighborhood and how police have failed to protect residents there.

WITNESS: “I WANT JUSTICE”

“I want justice,” Leonard Scalzo told the lawyer during a contentious back-and-forth in court Thursday. “I’m so glad you said that,” Fury replied. “You would have broken the law to see justice done?” “Yes, I believe I would have,” Scalzo answered. “You’re certainly not above misrepresenting your memory today?” Fury asked. “You’d tell whatever story you thought was necessary to get this guy convicted?”

“No,” Scalzo replied.

Denise Scalzo testified that she was standing on the stoop of their home when she saw Matlosz drive up to a young black man on the street, who continued to walk away. “I heard the cop say something to him,” she testified. The young man’s response was, “Oh, man.”

Then, she said, the man leaned in to the open patrol car window and opened fire. “He went in and he shot him once,” she testified. “After the first shot, I went, `Oh my God!’ Then he went in again and shot him twice.”

Earlier in his testimony, Leonard Scalzo said he had been across the street from the patrol car, curious about what was transpiring, and ignoring a shout from his wife to mind his own business. “I heard the officer say, `You gotta go’ or `You gotta come with me,”‘ Leonard Scalzo testified. “The officer turned. He wasn’t looking at him anymore.”

“BOOM! BOOM BOOM!”

The young man “was docile, doing whatever the officer said. All of a sudden, he dug in his pocket once, pulled something out, like this,” Leonard Scalzo said, standing up and demonstrating, using his thumb and index finger to mimic a gun. “Boom!” “He looked at me, and then he walked a step closer (to the patrol car). Boom! Boom!” Scalzo testified.

Between shots, Scalzo said, the young man turned and looked directly at him. “I looked him square in the eye, and he looked me square in the eye,” he testified. “I thought he was gonna shoot me.”

During cross-examination, Fury tried to get Leonard Scalzo to admit he had not actually seen the shooting, noting that he repeatedly told the 911 dispatcher he heard shots but made no mention at the time of seeing any.

“You didn’t see it, did you?” Fury asked. “I seen it,” Leonard Scalzo replied. “Don’t tell me I didn’t.”

Leonard Scalzo also testified that less than three hours after the shooting, he identified a suspect from a photo lineup of sixpeople. That photo, shown in court Thursday, appeared to be Crockam.

Later that night, his son-in-law texted him a photo, and Leonard Scalzo said he recognized him instantly. “I said, `That’s the guy!” Leonard Scalzo said. “Instantaneously. I’m positive.”

He gave the photo to police the next morning. Crockam was arrested a day later.

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