Three Red Bank residents face robbery, assault and other charges after a pair of beatings nearly a week apart that ended with one borough man stabbed and another’s SUV left burning in Mohawk Pond, police say.
Last Thursday and Friday, police arrested four men – all admitted or suspected members of the Bloods gang – and one woman on charges arising out of the attacks, said police Captain Darren McConnell.
The motive in both cases was robbery, and unrelated to gang grudges, McConnell said.
In the first incident, a 21-year-old man was hospitalized with six non-life-threating stab wounds to his torso and other injuries after being attacked by four men while walking River Street in the early morning hours of July 6, McConnell said.
The victim screamed and his assailants fled without getting anything from him, McConnell said.
The victim was taken to Jersey Shore Medical Center and later released. He is still recovering, McConnell said.
The second attack was on a 36-year-old Belmar man as he approached his 2002 Nissan Pathfinder parked on South Pearl Street in the early hours of July 12.
The same foursome is alleged to have attacked and robbed the man of cash and jewelry, and after he fled, to have driven his vehicle, which had its keys inside, into the nearby pond and set it on fire.
No motive for the destruction of the vehicle is known, McConnell said. The victim suffered cuts and bruises during the incident but did not require medical treatment, he said.
Charged in both attacks are Jason Hall, 20, of Bank Street in Red Bank; Dashaun Clayton, 21, of Montgomery Terrace in Red Bank; Kadean Lane, 20, of Peach Street in Tinton Falls; and Lamar Hicks, 27, of Long Branch. Each was charged with two counts of robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and one count of arson.
In addition, Hick’s purported girlfriend, Luchretia Jackson, 26, of South Pearl Street, was charged with one count of robbery for her alleged involvement in the robbery, but not the assault, of the second victim.
Jackson, who was ordered held on $25,000 bail, is the only one of the five to have been released on bail, McConnell said. State Superior Court Judge Thomas Scully, in Freehold, ordered Hicks held on $425,000 bail, and the other three men on $280,000 each.
McConnell said the arrests came about when police spotted Hall, whom they had already identified as a possible suspect in the first case, entering the Little Diamond jewelry store on Shrewsbury Avenue. The store’s owner cooperated with police, and Hall was found to have pawned valuables taken in the second assault, McConnell said.
All the proceeds of the second robbery, except for the cash, were recovered by police, he said.
The gang connection, McConnell said, manifested itself in that “they plan out who they’re going to rob and what they’re going to do” to their victims.
The incidents were investigated by the Red Bank Police Department’s detective bureau along with detectives from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. The Monmouth County and Red Bank Fire Marshals offices also assisted with the arson investigation.
