Marc DiNardo, one of the Jersey City police officers who were shot in last week's shootout, didn't make it. In addition to the connection between the shooting scene and my old workplace, I see now that the deceased went to the same college as I did. And his dad is a retired cop whose name seems awfully familiar. Maybe I knew him in school, or perhaps I interacted with him in my newspaper reporter days.

Here's a photo of the fallen officer drying off after jumping into the filthy Hackensack River to rescue a woman last month. He was at the World Trade Center on 9/11. He had arrested the guy who killed him on a weapons charge seven years ago. He's gone to a better place, but he was needed in a not-so-perfect place. He'll be missed.