Markeshia Ricks Photo
At 49, Mark Zaza is a little older than the typical rookie cop.
OK, more than a little.
He’s also got more than a little life experience too. He has been married, raised three kids, divorced, and owned two businesses. He served his country as Marine, driving a five-ton truck and hauling ammunition and explosives during the Persian Gulf War.
All that time — since he was growing up, in fact, in Southbury — he had a dream: to become a police officer.
When he got his chance, being admitted to the most recent New Haven Police Academy class, he was willing to endure as many old-man jokes as he had to to live that dream.
Zaza is one of the 25 new city officers now hitting the street after graduating from the New Haven Police Academy this past Friday. For Zaza, the graduation was a long time coming.
“I guess I am the poster child for persistence and perseverance,” he said in an interview Tuesday evening. “I finally got to live my dream.”
Zaza had tried for years to get into law enforcement. Something always got in the way. He said he didn’t take the process seriously enough and failed the test when he was younger man. He tried again after he got out of the Marine Corps, figuring he’d prefer to be in small towns with small departments. No luck.
With a wife and family to take care of, he relied on his carpentry and construction skills to get work, eventually starting his own business. When a bad builder left him high and dry on a job, and thousands of dollars in debt, he went to barber school. He rented a chair and eventually owned his own barbershop for 17 years.
Still his dream of becoming a police officer wouldn’t go away.
He made it to the academy to become a Connecticut state trooper. Then, he said, his class was never allowed to put on a uniform because of cuts to the department. He tried for the Hartford Police Department. No luck there either.
Most people would have eventually decided that maybe the law-enforcement dream was just that: a dream. Not Zaza. Not the people around him who believed in him. His brother-in-law, a Waterbury cop, suggested that he apply to New Haven.
“I was ecstatic to be accepted,” he said.
The academy requires its recruits to be in excellent physical condition. Zaza made it through the training with no injuries, and not because anyone took it easy on him. He had to do all the running and pushups that all the young recruits had to do, and in fact outperformed some of his younger peers, a feat that impressed his instructors and his fellow recruits.
Zaza said he knew going in that he had to be in great shape. He has not only kept up his fitness since his Marine Corps days, but trained to be ready for the academy. He also is a sports enthusiast who enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding and hockey.
Zaza said he was glad that his fellow recruits saw him as less of older father-figure type and more as a peer. Though they razzed him about his age, they respected his abilities.
“They would tease me about being an old man, but I’d just say, ‘I’ll show you an old man when one of you gets paired with me to practice our takedown procedures,’” he said with a chuckle. “They’d usually get quiet after that.”
He said he bonded with his fellow recruits and they became like family. It was surreal to be finished and not see them every day. He gave some of his classmates free haircuts so they would look good for graduation.
“Some of them said they really admired me because they said they know that if they were my age they couldn’t join the police academy and keep up a household,” he said.
In addition to being physically fit, Zaza proved himself to be an ace marksman, another skill he’d kept sharp since his Marine Corps days. He was recognized at graduation for his skills after winning a competition with another recruit.
He also said all that he learned from his instructors at the academy helped him be even better.
“We gave him a lot of hell” for his age, Officer Rob Strickland, an academy instructor said of Zaza. “He stuck in there.” Strickland said Zaza won over the class with his humility and sense of humor, as well as his proven physical ability.
Zaza said now that he is an officer he hopes to be fair but tough, and looks forward to being a part of the department’s community policing strategy. He said as much as he looks forward to fighting crime, he also looks forward to being an influence on the lives of young people who might be headed down the wrong path.
“I want to help somebody turn their life around,” he said. So they can pursue their own dreams.
The following 25 officers graduated the academy to become New Haven cops: Lizmarie Almedina, Jakub Baliga, Thomas Blaisdell, Shawn Booth, Jesse Buccaro, Christopher Dube, Anthony Forillo, Ernesto Gonzalez, Matthew Hancock, Brendan Hawley, Eduardo Leonardo, James Marcum, Rafael Mendez, Patrick Munson, Thomas Murray, James Paxton, Bryan Phillips, Najea Poindexter, Esau Ramirez, Daophet Sangxayarath, Dominic Santo, Savannah Smith, Christopher Stroscio, Paul Vitale, Mark Zaza. The class also included the follwoing officers from suburban departments: Jonathan Andino (East Haven), Weston Bartosik (Trumbull), David Flores (Madison), Kevin McGuire Kevin (East Haven), Dylan Northrop (East Haven), Donato Palma (East Haven), Tony Ssonko (East Haven), Ahmad Wahib (East Haven).
I have met him before great guy.