SOMERVILLE, NJ – Judge Kevin M. Shanahan has sentenced a former New York City police officer to five years in jail for a 2014 shooting incident in Watchung.

Wanda Anthony, 48, of Staten Island, NY, must serve a minimum of 42 months in New Jersey State Prison without parole for her conviction for 2nd degree possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose and disorderly persons criminal mischief.

She was convicted on Oct.12, 2017, following a three-week jury trial before Judge Bradford M. Bury in Somerville.

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Her conviction stemmed from an incident that occurred at 3:30 a.m. on April 30, 2014, in Watchung.

Somerset County Prosecutor Michael H. Robertson provided the following account:

At the time of the incident, Anthony was employed as a sergeant with the New York City Police Department, but was off-duty and in Watchung on a date with a resident of High Tor Drive.

Shortly after she arrived at the Tor Drive residence, she was as involved in a physical altercation with the girlfriend of the resident. After the altercation, Anthony brandished her NYPD-issued 9mm handgun and fired one round into the High Tor Drive resident's vehicle located in the driveway of the residence.

The bullet shattered the rear driver’s side door window and lodged in the vehicle’s right front A-pillar.





Anthony fled the scene after firing the shot, and was located nearby and arrested by Watchung Police.

Detectives from the Watchung Police Department investigated the incident; a Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office forensic technician later recovered two projectile fragments from the resident’s vehicle, and a ballistics expert matched the projectile fragments to Anthony’s handgun

Anthony was terminated by the NYPD following the incident.