Cop Shoots His Husband To Death, Also a Cop
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| John Kelly dead on the hands of His Husband, Also a cop |
A retired police officer and former EMT went on trial Wednesday in Sussex County on charges of aggravated manslaughter in the fatal shooting his husband, also a retired police officer, in their Vernon home two years ago.
Joseph C. Grieco, 38, who retired on disability from the Tenafly Police Department in 2022, is accused of shooting John Kelly, 44, a retired New York Police Department officer, once in the chest in their Vernon home after a night of drinking, according to police.
Grieco told police the shooting was an accident, and that he was demonstrating how to kill a snake when the gun went off, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by investigators.
Vernon police were called about 1:20 a.m. on July 26, 2023, to an apartment in the 300 block of Route 94 and found Kelly suffering from a gunshot wound to the lower right torso. He died a short time later at a hospital, police said.
Grieco is charged with first-degree aggravated manslaughter with extreme indifference to human life. He remains free pending the outcome of the trial, according to the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Two years before the shooting, Grieco and Kelly had purchased a mountaintop property bordering New York State and began clearing the brush with plans to build a home, according to Kelly’s obituary.
The couple were living in an apartment near the construction site when the shooting occurred.
Grieco and Kelly went out to dinner on July 25, 2023, and later stopped by a VFW Hall near their home, where Grieco consumed alcohol, authorities said.
While at the VFW, the couple met two friends and the four went back to the apartment for drinks, authorities said in court documents.
“At some point, Grieco brandished a handgun, and he was told multiple times that the weapon looked loaded,” the affidavit states.
Grieco continued to handle the handgun, which eventually went off and Kelly was hit by the bullet, authorities said. EMTs treated Kelly at the scene before transporting him to St. Anthony Community Hospital in Warwick, New York, where he died
Police found the handgun on a counter in the home, along with one spent shell casing, and a live round on the floor. “The magazine in the handgun was loaded with 10 more rounds,” the affidavit states.
Grieco, who appeared to be intoxicated, told officers he knew the gun was loaded, authorities said. Grieco added that he had been a police officer for 14 years and told police that “no one should point the weapon at anyone,” the affidavit states.
Grieco retired on disability from the Tenafly Police Department on June 1, 2022, following an accident two years earlier, state records show. The nature of the work-related accident is described as “a traumatic incident,” but details are redacted from the state paperwork.
Grieco’s attorney, S. Emile Lisboa IV, was in court on Wednesday and not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office said opening arguments in the case were set to begin Wednesday morning and that the prosecution expects to rest its case on Thursday.
The defense is expected to begin presenting its case on Monday, the spokesman said.
New Jersey’s Police & Fireman’s Retirement System states Grieco began his career as an emergency medical technician in Tenafly in September 2008 before he was hired a year later as a borough police officer, where he worked for 14 years.
Kelly graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz and worked as a police officer for a small town in Westchester County, New York, before he was hired as a police officer for the NYPD, according to his obituary.
Kelly eventually earned a Master’s Degree in corporation communications from New York University that allowed him to work in the private sector, the obituary states.
Born John Ostrowski II in Yonkers, New York in 1978, Kelly met Grieco through a mutual friend and the two later married.
“John’s quick-witted humor and ability to connect with others touched many lives,” the obituary states. “John would have liked to be remembered for his humorous anecdotes and exaggerated imitations.”
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