Not being a member of a police department, I cannot begin to understand the depth of loss that officers throughout New Jersey are feeling after the Jan. 14 murder of Lakewood police officer Christopher Matlosz.
However, being a member of the human race, I can offer my sympathies and deepest condolences to his family, friends and fellow officers.
In 30 years as a journalist, I have reported on, or directed my staff to report on, many tragic stories. I am certain you have read those articles: children who have died from terrible illnesses, teenagers and adults who have been killed in motor vehicle accidents; lives that have been lost in fires.
All of those individuals are important to me, just as they were important to their friends and loved ones.
The murder of Matlosz, 27, takes things to a new level, however. It is difficult to imagine the officer pulling up in his patrol car to have a conversation with a young man on a Lakewood street and then, moments later and for reasons that are still unknown or have not been revealed, being shot and killed by that pedestrian.
Jahmell Crockam, 19, of Lakewood, was arrested on Jan. 16 and charged with murdering Matlosz. At the time Matlosz was murdered, Crockam had outstanding warrants for weapons possession hanging over his head. It is not known, or again, not reported, whether Matlosz stopped to speak with Crockam because of those warrants.
On Jan. 20, the day of Matlosz’s funeral, authorities charged Crockam with murder in another Lakewood case, one that occurred in October 2010.
The cold-blooded killing of Matlosz has shocked the law enforcement community and residents of all towns. The officer’s killing raises the threat of unprovoked violence to a level not generally seen in our communities. Matlosz had ties to the area served by the two newspapers for which I am the managing editor, the News Transcript and the Tri-Town News.
Matlosz was a graduate of Howell High School, he was a member of the Howell Police Explorers, and he worked as an officer in Freehold Township and Englishtown before being hired in Lakewood.
In a conversation I had with Englishtown police Sgt. Peter Cooke Jr. on Jan. 17, Cooke was at a loss for words when trying to describe the sense of loss he felt upon learning that his former colleague had been gunned down in the line of duty.
There really are no words to explain the circumstances surrounding Matlosz’s
execution. It is now up to his fellow officers and others in the legal system to make a case against his alleged killer, and to try to determine why the officer was slain.
Someday we may get an answer as to why the killing went down the way it did, but even then the answer will not suffice for the loved ones Matlosz leaves behind.
Cooke said Matlosz never made it a secret while he worked in Englishtown from 2004 to 2006 that his dream was to become a member of the Lakewood Police Department. Matlosz finally was hired by Lakewood in 2006 and he served that department honorably and professionally for more than four years.
Matlosz had every right to expect that he would serve Lakewood’s residents for decades to come, but it was not to be. Life is precious and fleeting, and it cannot be taken for granted. We who do not walk in a police officer’s shoes cannot imagine what it is like to approach an individual, not knowing if our question will be answered with words or bullets.
Mark Rosman is a managing editor with Greater Media Newspapers. He may be reached at [email protected].