On the morning of August 8, 1984, a veteran police officer, Anthony J. Garaffa, a 41-year-old Caucasian male, was fatally shot in Irvington, New Jersey. A member of the Irvington Police Department for 16 years, Patrolman Garaffa was responding to a report of suspicious activity near the intersection of 40th Street and Springfield Avenue around 11:30 a.m.
Upon his arrival, Garaffa encountered three men and began to question them. During the interaction, he inquired about the contents of a bag one of the men was carrying. In a sudden and violent turn of events, the man reached into the bag, not to reveal its contents, but to fire a sawed-off shotgun through the material, striking Patrolman Garaffa. The force of the blast knocked the officer to the ground. He was rushed to University Hospital, but tragically succumbed to his severe injuries approximately five hours later.
The man who fired the fatal shot was identified as Teddy Rose. Roughly two hours after the shooting, Rose, then 21 years old, turned himself in to the authorities. He was subsequently charged with capital murder for the death of Patrolman Garaffa. The ensuing legal process found Rose guilty, and he was initially sentenced to death for his crime.
However, the case did not end there. Following an appeal to the Supreme Court of New Jersey, Rose's conviction was upheld, but errors identified in the sentencing phase of his trial led to a change in his punishment. On February 14, 1991, his death sentence was commuted to a term of 30 years to life in prison. This decision made him eligible for parole in January 2022. Patrolman Garaffa was survived by his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
