A 14-year-old is charged in connection with the Friday night shooting death of Newark Police Department’s Det. Joseph Azcona.
ABC 7 NY reported Azcona was inside his police vehicle around 6: 30 p.m. while other officers “were investigating the possibility that a group of individuals had illegal firearms.”
A shootout erupted and Azcona was hit by gunfire before he was able to exit his vehicle and he died later in a hospital. Another officer was also hit, but his wounds are not believed to be life-threatening.
The person suspected of shooting the officers, a 14-year-old boy, was also wounded but is expected to survive. He has now been charged with “crimes including murder, attempted murder and possession of illegal weapons.”
The New York Post noted that Juan G. Lopez, the uncle of Azcona, blames the 14-year-old’s parents for his nephew’s death.
Lopez said, “It’s the parents. The way they were raised, the parents.”
Azcona’s mother, Martha Vargas, offered a different take, saying, “Sometimes you can blame the parents but sometimes you can’t. You don’t know what they’re doing. You cannot blame them. I don’t blame the parents, believe me.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
