A New Jersey cop is facing misconduct charges after allegedly ignoring reports of gunshots that left two people dead, and going for pizza instead.

Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was on duty on the evening of August 1, when he received reports of gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, according to Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office.

Rather than responding immediately to the call, surveillance allegedly showed Bollaro heading two miles in the opposite direction and stopping to get cash and a slice.

The following day, the bodies of Lauren Semanchik, 33, a veterinarian, and Tyler Webb, 29, a volunteer firefighter, were found in a home roughly 600 feet away from the location of the first 911 caller.

Prosecutors say the two had been shot dead by New Jersey State Police Lieutenant Ricardo Santos, who had later died by suicide. Santos previously dated Semanchik. She had become increasingly concerned about his behavior since their split and left a voice message with local police saying she wanted to file a report or a restraining order against him.

On the night, prosecutors allege that Bollaro headed to Duke’s Pizzeria in Pittstown, where he stayed for nearly an hour. Witnesses later saw him park and enter another local restaurant, where he remained for roughly another hour.

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After his leisurely dinner, Bollaro headed towards the crime scene without activating his emergency lights or sirens and told the police dispatcher he had not heard any disturbance at the locations of the 911 calls.

Prosecutors said GPS data shows he never visited those locations before he asked the dispatcher to clear him from the scene.

In addition, the sergeant later submitted a report in which he allegedly made false statements about his investigations into the calls – including that he was canvassing the neighborhood at the time when he was allegedly on the way to get pizza.

Bollaro has been charged with official misconduct for knowingly refraining from performing his police duties, prosecutors said. He also faces a charge of tampering with public records for knowingly making false entries in his incident report.

Bollaro is due to appear in court November 5.

In a statement given to The New York Post, Bollaro’s lawyer Charles Sciarra called the charges “unfortunate” but claimed there was “nothing Kevin Bollaro did or did not do that day impacted or could have stopped” the killings.

The families of the victims said they were “shocked” by Bollaro’s supposed “egregious conduct” but added that his behaviour was just the “tip of the iceberg of the many failures by the local and state police” in the investigations, according to WABC-TV.

The Independent has contacted Franklin Township Police Department for comment in the investigation into Bollaro’s conduct.

The Associated Press contributed to this report