A cop fatally struck a nurse. His actions after the crash shock the victim?s loved ones.

His cousin Albert Guzman was in the passenger seat.It was the night of Halloween 2021, and Santiago was drunk, according to Essex County prosecutors.He was staring at a cellphone when his car allegedly drifted into the shoulder and struck a man who happened to be walking along the darkened stretch of highway, prosecutors say.Santiago, 25, initially thought he may have hit an animal, according to his lawyer, Patrick Toscano Jr. The victim, Damian Dymka, 29, was still in the costume that he had worn out that night: a black mask with gold antlers and brown fur covering his shoulders.Dymka would be pronounced dead at the scene — but not until more than two hours later.In those two hours, Santiago drove home with Dymka’s body in the back seat and then returned to the crash site having never called 911 or attempted to render aid to the man, prosecutors say.“Put that body back where you hit it,” Annette Santiago allegedly told her son when he showed up at their home, according to prosecutors.He’s now facing 12 felony charges, including reckless vehicular homicide and endangering an injured victim. How Dymka ended up there remains a mystery to his loved ones.After allegedly striking Dymka, Santiago drove off but returned to the scene multiple times before he loaded the man’s body into his car, prosecutors said.With Guzman in the passenger seat and Dymka’s body in the back, Santiago then drove to the home he shares with his parents, prosecutors said.According to an affidavit of probable cause signed by a state trooper, Guzman informed Santiago’s mother that her son had struck a man while driving drunk and the body was in the Honda.She went to speak with Santiago and then walked over to the car to see the body, the affidavit says.That’s when she allegedly instructed him to return the dead man to the crash scene, the affidavit says. Santiago’s father called 911 though prosecutors did not detail when this occurred.Santiago got angry after finding out that his father had contacted police, according to the affidavit, and discussed changing his clothes.“My f------ shirt has blood on it,” Santiago said, according to the police affidavit.Before he took off, his mother handed him a towel so he could clean the blood off himself, the affidavit says.Santiago arrived back at the accident site just before New Jersey State troopers showed up.The troopers found Santiago standing beside his car and Dymka’s body in the back seat, according to the affidavit. “It was a horrible, horrible accident, but there was not one iota of cover-up here at all.”After realizing he had hit a person, the off-duty officer called his father from the scene, Toscano told NBC News, and the elder Santiago immediately called New Jersey State Police.Santiago put the victim in the back seat with the intention of driving him to the nearest hospital, Toscano said.