# [ODMP] Watchung Police Department, New Jersey ~ March 8, 2006



## Guest (Mar 9, 2006)

A Police Officer with the Watchung Police Department was killed in the line of duty on March 8, 2006

*http://www.odmp.org/officer.php?oid=18231*


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers . . .






















Police Officer Matthew Matthew Melchiondia 
*Watchung Police Department
New Jersey*
End of Watch: Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Biographical Info
*Age:* 31
*Tour of Duty:* 6 years
*Badge Number:* Not available

Incident Details
*Cause of Death:* Automobile accident
*Date of Incident:* Wednesday, March 8, 2006
*Weapon Used*: Not available
*Suspect Info:* Not available

Officer Melchiondia was killed in an automobile accident while following a suspicious vehicle.

Officer Melchiondia was assisting detectives assigned to the auto larceny unit pull over suspicious vehicle. While Officer Melchiondia was following the suspicious vehicle he attempted to get closer to the vehicle by crossing over the double yellow line of Grandview Avenue, when his patrol car was struck by a civilian vehicle. The patrol car then struck a pole. Officer Melchiondia was killed instantly.

Officer Melchiondia had served with the Watchung Police Department for six years.

Agency Contact Information
Watchung Police Department
840 Somerset Street
Watchung, NJ 07060

Phone: (908) 756-3663

* _Please contact the agency for funeral information_

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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*New Jersey Officer Killed In On-Duty Accident*

*JIM DOLAN*
_WABC_

Investigators will not file charges in the tragic accident that killed a police officer in New Jersey. The six-year veteran of the Watchung Police Department was killed when he lost control of his car in pursuit of a suspect.

Police stress that this was not a high speed chase and that the driver the officer was pursuing had no idea he was trying to catch up with her.

Officer Matthew Melkeyonda was reportedly trying to catch up to a suspicious car when he lost control of his own vehicle and slammed into a tree. He was just 31.

Eyewitness News Reporter Jim Dolan has the story.

Matthew Melkeyonda was just 31-years-old and had six years on the Watchung Police force. Last night, he was asked by another police officer to pull over a suspicious vehicle.

As he crossed over into North Plainfield, he had to swerve to miss an oncoming car. He lost control and slammed into a tree.

The sheared off top of the Watchung Police car was thrown back on the car, a mangled mess of twisted metal wrapped around a tree in Jim Edmonson's front yard.

Edmonson: "There was a tremendous thud. The whole house shook ... I jumped up, I was on the couch and looked outside and saw the car wrapped around the tree in my front yard. It was just devastating."

Neighbors from as far as a block away heard it and came out to help. But there was little they could do.

"There was a lot of chaos ... there was a detective on scene. He was at the car immediately yelling out the officer's name. Everybody was outside because everyone pretty much heard it ... he was trying to pull the car's passenger side door open," an eyewitness said.

"I helped and we weren't able to get him out, but the fire department came," another eyewitness said.

The woman in the minivan was not hurt and there no charges were filed against her.


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