NORTH BERGEN, NJ -- Police shot and killed a retired township fire captain late Monday night when he pointed a hunting rifle at them after a five-hour standoff, authorities said.
John "Butch" DiTursi, 58, was shot just after 11 p.m. in the fourth-floor hallway of the Park River Towers apartment building, on Boulevard East in the Woodcliff section of North Bergen, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. He died about 30 minutes later at Palisades Medical Center.
At several points during the standoff with police, DiTursi had stepped out onto his balcony overlooking the Hudson River armed with the .30-06 hunting rifle outfitted with a scope, DeFazio said.
He apparently fired at least one shot inside the apartment, but no one else was injured during the incident, the prosecutor said.
The standoff began hours earlier, shortly after 6 p.m., when DiTursi - who was apparently drunk - got into an argument with his wife and began breaking things in the house, DeFazio said.
When he started throwing items off the apartment's fourth-floor balcony - including a potted plant - his wife became concerned, left the apartment and called DiTursi's brother, DeFazio said. His brother then called police, DeFazio said.
North Bergen police arrived and were told that DiTursi was armed. When DiTursi refused to come out, additional police were called in from Jersey City, Union City and the Hudson County Sheriff's Office, DeFazio said.
The 92-unit building's fourth-floor residents were evacuated, but those already inside apartments on other floors were allowed to stay. Residents arriving after the standoff began, however, were not allowed to enter the building.
Over the next several hours, police attempted to convince DiTursi to come outside - and called in his brother and former co-workers to talk to him, DeFazio said - but he refused.
North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue Co-Director Mike DeOrio, a longtime friend who served with DiTursi in the North Bergen Fire Department - which ceased operations after the merger that created NHRF&R - arrived minutes after the incident began and was among those who tried to talk to DiTursi.
"I was here from the minute his brother called me," DeOrio said. "I lived two blocks away from him my whole life . We tried everything we could to try to figure out what the problem was."
DeFazio said DiTursi stepped out onto his balcony with the rifle more than once, creating a "potentially very hazardous situation" for people in the neighborhood.
"He didn't assume a shooting stance out on the balcony; however, he did clearly have the gun," DeFazio said.
"If he started taking shots from there with a rifle, innocent people could have been killed . If it appeared that he was going to start shooting at River Road or toward the river, he would have been at risk at that point" of being shot by police, the prosecutor said.
Each time, DiTursi went back inside the apartment, and police continued their attempts to negotiate. However, "they were not getting any sort of constructive response," DeFazio said.
At about 11 p.m., DiTursi abruptly opened his apartment door and pointed the rifle at police officers standing in the hallway, DeFazio said, and two of the officers - a North Bergen police officer and a Union City police sergeant - each fired twice.
"He didn't say he was going to come out. It was a relatively sudden sequence of events," DeFazio said. "He opened the door, he leveled the gun, and he got shot."
DiTursi was hit twice in the lower torso and once in a leg, DeFazio said, and was pronounced dead at Palisades Medical Center at 11:33 p.m.
His body has been taken to the Regional Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy. The prosecutor said it was unclear if DiTursi was on any medication at the time, but it did appear that he was intoxicated.
Inside the apartment, police found two shotguns and more than 100 rounds of ammunition, DeFazio said.
"The rifle had one bullet in the chamber and four in the magazine, and he had two full magazines in his pants pockets," DeFazio said.
The Prosecutor's Office is continuing to investigate the shooting, but at this time it appears to be justified, DeFazio said. He refused to release the names of the police officers involved.
"The officers took the action that had to be effectuated based on what was presented to them," DeFazio said.
"It was a very tense and dangerous situation," he said. "There was restraint exercised. It wasn't until he came into the hallway and leveled the gun in the direction of Emergency Services personnel that they responded . I think, under the circumstances, their response was reasonable and prudent."
DeFazio wouldn't speculate if DiTursi had intentionally tried to draw the cops' fire but said that DiTursi "apparently was not concerned for his own safety."
DeOrio called it a "heart-breaking, tragic ending" to his former colleague's life, and wished police had waited longer for him to give up.
"There was no one else inside the apartment. They could have let it go a little longer," he said. "I was a police officer, years ago, so I understand it a little from the other side of the situation too. But speaking personally, as a friend, it's very hard, very disappointing for it to have ended like that."
DiTursi retired in February 1996 from the North Bergen Fire Department on a disability pension after falling from a second-story window while fighting a fire on Tonnelle Avenue.
Six years earlier, he had broken his arm while fighting a fire on 10th Street.
The North Bergen Fire Department was consolidated with the Guttenberg, Union City, Weehawken and West New York fire departments in January 1999.
DeOrio remembered DiTursi as a "very good, very aggressive firefighter" who never put his own safety ahead of the lives of civilians and his fellow firefighters.
"A group of guys from the neighborhood joined the Fire Department together, came up through the ranks together," DeOrio said.
"He lived in North Bergen his whole life. He played sports, he coached Pop Warner football, he visited hospitals every year . He was a very good, very compassionate, very down-to-earth guy."
Nancy Boden, a member of the Park River Towers condominium board, said DiTursi was especially kind to the seniors in the building, and had recently helped oversee a hallway remodeling project.
"He was handy around the building and always willing to help," she said. "He wasn't a stranger. Everyone knew him.
"I used to see him on occasion in the park with his golf clubs hitting golf balls. He loved living here, he loved the birds and in the winters he would put bird feeders up for them."
She said residents who couldn't get into the building Monday night took refuge in a room rented in a nearby building for condo board elections. They were allowed back inside at about 11:45 p.m., she said.
She said the reaction to the news that DiTursi had been killed was "stunned silence."
"Everyone was shocked," she said. "It's like watching TV. Only, you're here."
Viewing will be tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at A.K. Macagna Funeral Home, Cliffside Park. Mass will be Friday at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Grace Church, Fairview.
