Meet this week’s “Special Person of the Week:Somerville Police Detective Dante DiFronzo
Dante DiFronzo, a 44-year-old father of three, a decorated officer in the Somerville department, who was twice named the city’s police officer of the year.
In 2013, Somerville Police Chief Thomas Pasquarello presented DiFronzo with the “BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY AWARD” for outstanding dedication and effort for the month of August 2013.
The award presentation also stated that Detective Dante DiFronzo has been an exemplary employee of the Somerville Police Department. As a member of the Criminal Investigations Division, Dante is tasked with working on some of the most grievous crimes.
On July 19th 2013 Dante received a call for an armed robbery in progress, which involved a masked individual with a firearm, who had just had just robbed the Inman Square Pharmacy. Detective DiFronzo and other officers recovered some of the stolen drugs and evidence which had been stashed by the suspect during his escape.
After watching surveillance video of the suspect, Dante, along with Cambridge Police units conducted a lengthy search of the area for this armed and dangerous suspect, with negative results.
Eventually, as other units returned to their active patrol, Dante remained behind, hoping that the suspect may return to the scene where the evidence was discarded.
After time spent on surveillance, Dante observed the suspect now dressed in a different change of clothes from what he had been wearing in the robbery video. These keen observations lead to Dante stopping the suspect, with a violent struggle that ensued.
Dante was able to arrest the suspect, recover the firearm, and obtain additional evidence from the armed robbery. Follow up investigation revealed that this armed and dangerous suspect had been involved with a number of other local robberies. Detective DiFronzo’s diligence, bravery and hard work are truly above and beyond the call of duty and merit this recognition.
Our hats are off to his true Somerville spirit!
We here at the Somerville News Weekly salute you for everything that you do to make Somerville a better place.
Congratulations!