Melvin Santiago had one dream from the time he was a little boy: to become a police officer for his home town.
And he did. This son of Jersey City graduated from the police academy in December and quickly took his place among the blue line defending their city.
Santiago’s dream was cut short early Sunday at a Walgreen’s when Lawrence Campbell grabbed a security guard’s gun and shot Officer Santiago in the head when he and a partner arrived on the scene. The killer was then shot dead by police.
Moments before the shooting, Campbell was heard telling someone to watch the news that evening because he’d be famous. Just as perversely, a sidewalk “shrine” to Campbell has sprouted up on Orient Avenue.
Since then, city authorities have arrested Daniel Wilson, a man they say is a person of interest in the Santiago shooting.
The cliché is to dismiss this as a senseless murder. But Officer Santiago stepped forward to join the force precisely because he understood that to cede the streets to predators like Campbell would be to make the city a jungle for the innocent.
As a friend posted on Facebook, “I hate the streets of Jersey City but so did u that’s why u became a cop.”
His murder reminds us what our men and women in blue face each time they report to work. The ultimate tribute to this young policeman is that he died as he wished to live, in the uniform of his service. Officer Melvin Santiago, RIP.