Woodbridge Honors Five Police Officers for Their Service

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Mayor John E. McCormac presented awards to four police officers this week for their life-saving actions, and McCormac honored a fifth officer for her compassionate on-duty response to people in crisis.

The mayor’s commendations recognized each officer for their on-duty job performance during the first quarter of 2024.

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Officer Sue Ellen Gerena was recognized for her multiple emergency responses to incidents during the first quarter of 2024 involving people “in-crisis” with emotional or mental health issues. Gerena, a six-year police veteran, is specially trained in crisis intervention.

Besides her patrol duties, Gerena is part of the department’s “Arrive Together Program” that pairs officers with mental health specialists. They work together to intervene and de-escalate in potentially violent situations, then helps those people find appropriate treatment or counseling.

Mayor McCormac awarded commendations to Officers Andrew Lyszyk, Jacob Manente, George Awad, and Dipen Nayee for their response to an April 14th domestic dispute, and the life-saving measures they took that spared the life of a stabbing victim.

When the four officers arrived at a West Pond Road residence in Hopelawn on that day, they found a woman with a knife and cuts on her hand, and a man profusely bleeding from a right leg-stab wound to his femoral artery, a potentially life-threatening injury.

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Using tourniquets, the officers stemmed the bleeding and stabilized the man before EMTs took him to an area hospital for treatment. The officers also tended to the woman’s hand wound before her arrest, and saw that she also received proper medical treatment.

Officer Lyszyk is an 18-year police veteran; Manente has been on the job for four years; Awad for two years, and Nayee was hired a year ago, according to the township.

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