Medical gloves littered the street in the vicinity of the shooting on West Sunset Avenue Friday morning . (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
One of two people shot as they sat in a pickup truck on Red Bank’s West Side Thursday night was the brother of a man gunned down in the borough under similar circumstances seven months ago, redbankgreen has learned.
Leon Veney, 29, of Red Bank, was shot twice as he sat behind the wheel of a Ford pickup truck pulled over on West Sunset Avenue at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday, police Chief Darren McConnell confirmed Friday night. Also shot was Angelique Morris, 23, of Tinton Falls, who was hit once as she sat in the truck’s passenger seat, McConnell said.
Veney is the brother of Perry Veney, 28, who was shot at least six times as he sat behind the wheel of a car parked just a few blocks east, on South Pearl Willow Street, on April 9, McConnell said.
“There is a possibility of a connection between the two shootings,” McConnell said. “This early in the investigation, it’s imprudent to rule anything out, but it hasn’t escaped our notice that two brothers were shot in close proximity in time” while seated in vehicles, he said.
Police, though, released little more information about the investigation, except to say that the shooter or shooter fled on foot. “There was no other vehicle involved,” McConnell said. No suspects have been identified.
Veney and Morris were both still in critical but stable condition at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, and police have been unable to interview them because of their conditions, the chief said.
Beyond the three bullets that struck the victims, police are not sure if any other shots were fired, he said.
Authorities have a suspect in custody in the April shooting: Anthony Sims, 25, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to shooting two men at the at the Montgomery Terrace public housing apartments on the borough’s West Side three years earlier.
Sims was indicted in August in the Perry Veney shooting. Perry Veney’s condition could not be learned Friday night.
Attempts to reach a member of the Veney family were not immediately successful Friday night.
