Orange to honor four police officers killed in line of duty

ORANGE, NJ — The following Orange Police Department officers who died in the line of duty are to be honored Thursday, Feb. 23, in front of the Freddie Polhill Law and Justice Complex on Park Street: detective Kieran T. Shields, officer Joyce Carnegie, Lt. Hermann Peccarelli and patrolman Frank Guzzo.

Shields died after being shot while searching an abandoned house in pursuit of a robbery suspect Monday, Aug. 7, 2006; Carnegie was shot and killed during a traffic stop Thursday, April 8, 1999; Peccarelli was killed Wednesday, March 9, 1966, after volunteering to help apprehend a suspect wanted in connection with three homicides; and Guzzo was killed Wednesday, Sept. 10, 1952, during a motor vehicle chase.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page website www.odmo.org, Shields was shot and killed while involved in a foot pursuit of a suspect in a residential area by two blasts from a shotgun, as he responded to a report of shots fired, and a witness said the gunman had fled behind an abandoned residence at 170-172 Taylor St.

Shields chased after the suspect, later identified as 20-year-old Raynard Brown,who was hiding inside the abandoned home and shot Shields, striking him in the neck just above his bulletproof vest. He was pronounced dead at University Hospital in Newark.

Brown was taken into custody 13 hours after the shooting and charged with murder and weapons offenses. At the time of shooting, he was out on bail while awaiting trial on burglary and weapons charges. He pleaded guilty to murder and weapons offenses on Jan. 3, 2008, in exchange for a recommendation that he receive 40 years, instead of life, in prison.

Shields had been a member of the Orange Police Department for five years when he was killed; he is survived by his wife and three children.

According to www.odmo.org, Carnegie was shot and killed by an armed robbery suspect she had stopped for questioning. She was the first female officer to be killed in the line of duty in Essex County and the second to be killed in New Jersey.

Her killer, later identified as Condell Woodson, 37, had just committed two muggings in the area minutes earlier, and was walking toward her when she stopped him.

As Carnegie approached, Woodson drew his weapon and shot her before she had time to draw her own weapon. Although she was wearing a vest, she was shot in the head and abdomen and she was found next to her patrol car by a federal agent who happened to be in the area.

Woodson pled guilty to Carnegie’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison June 30, 1999.

Carnegie had been with the Orange Police Department for four years when she was killed and is survived by her mother.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page website at www.odmo.org, Peccarelli was shot and killed during a standoff involving a man barricaded in a second floor apartment on Ogden Street in Orange. He was off duty when he volunteered to join fellow officers responding to the scene, where a suspect wanted for three murders was believed to be hiding.

Earlier that night, the suspect had engaged in an argument with a man regarding the price of a car he wanted to buy; he then went into a rage, stabbing the man, his pregnant wife and their 10-year-old son. When officers arrived at the scene, a shootout ensued and Peccarelli was shot in the head as he attempted to shoot tear gas into the home. The suspect was shot and killed. Peccarelli was posthumously promoted from the rank of sergeant to lieutenant.

After 20 years on the job, Guzzo was killed in a motorcycle accident while in pursuit of a vehicle. He was survived by his wife and two children.

On Oct. 7, 2008, all four were posthumously promoted to the rank of inspector.

  Orange Police Department