The young Newark cop executed during a gun sweep last week was a decorated detective — and just an all-around “nice kid’’ who regularly helped out his neighbors.
Detective Joseph Azcona, 26, grew up in New Jersey’s largest city and had been on the force for five years when he was ambushed while still in his police car and shot in the head by a 14-year-old boy Friday evening, prosecutors said.
“I work at night, so when I’m coming home from work in the morning, [Azcona] would be leaving, and when I’m looking for a parking spot, he would always say, “Miss, do you want my spot?” resident Matilda Daa, 45, recalled to The Post on Monday.
“He was a very nice kid,’’ she said of her slain hero neighbor, who lived with his mother.
Daa’s son even looked up to Azcona, she added.
“My little boy — when he sees him, he would say ‘Officer!’,” she said.
Azcona and his partner were responding to a 911 report of a person with a gun at Carteret Street and Broadway in the Forest Hill section of Newark around 6:30 p.m. Friday when the teen suspect started firing at them first, law-enforcement sources said.
“I heard about six shots, like fast shots,’’ a worker at the nearby McDonald’s told The Post on Monday — adding there is video of at least part of the shoot-out and that cops confiscated it.
“We don’t know the kid because you can’t see his face on the video,’’ said the employee, who declined to give his name.
A man who was riding his bike down the street at the time added, “I heard the shots — really loud.
“But I’m from here, so I know gun shots when I hear them.
“Before you know it, all you see is cop cars flying down the block,’’ he said. “I was riding to go home, and a cop stopped me and told me I had to go around the block.”
Azcona took a fatal bullet from an automatic weapon while still sitting in his seat, authorities said.
His funeral will be held Friday at 10:30 a.m. at the Cathedral Basilica Roman Catholic Church at 89 Ridge St. in Newark, the police department announced Monday.
His partner, who was outside the car at the time, also was shot, as was the 14-year-old accused shooter. Both the kid and the wounded cop suffered non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Carmen Martin, spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, told The Post on Monday that the accused teen is still hospitalized.
“When he’s released, he’ll be arraigned,’’ she said.
Daa said of the heinous slaying, “I saw the news, but I didn’t know it was my neighbor’s son.
“When I came home and everybody was [at the mom’s house], I was like, “What happen?” And they told me, ‘Her son died. The one in the police.’
She added: “I remember my last time seeing him. I asked, ‘I haven’t seen you in your uniform, what happened?’ He said, ‘No, I’m a detective now.’ I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, congratulations.’ ”
Azcona was made detective after just two years on the job and earned numerous awards during his short but stellar career.
He landed a 2023 medal for excellence from the police department for a traffic stop that netted two handguns, the Newark Lodge Officer of the Month in 2022 and a Newark 4th Precinct citation in 2020, NJ.com reported.
He hoped to become an FBI agent, his mom told the outlet.
“I feel bad for the family — the mom and the brothers,’’ Daa said of Azcona’s kin. “They are nice people ever since I moved to this community.”
As for the accused killer, “He’s young, but he took somebody’s life, he took somebody’s child,’’ she said.
“And this person’s life he took was a nice person.”
The bike-riding shooting witness who declined to give his name said of the accused teen killer, “I hope they wait till he’s 18 and try the him as an adult.
“Drag the case out, and try him as an adult. His life is over, too.”
— Additional reporting by Steve Janoski
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