RED BANK: SIMS CONVICTION UPHELD
By JOHN T. WARD
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of Anthony Sims, who was found guilty in the 2014 shooting of a man seated in a car parked in Red Bank.
RED BANK: MAN FACING WEAPONS CHARGES
A Tinton Falls man is facing weapons charges after he brought a handgun loaded with armor-piercing bullets into Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank last month, police Chief Darren McConnell told redbankgreen Wednesday.
The suspect, Wesley Rucker, age 34, was also charged with impersonating a federal law enforcement official.
RED BANK: GUNSHOT VICTIM SHOWS UP HERE
The Emergency Room entrance at Riverview, as seen last May. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
A Sea Bright man shot in an attempted robbery in Paterson turned up in the hospital in Red Bank late Friday, Passaic County law enforcers said Saturday.
As reported Saturday by the Daily Voice, the unidentified 27-year-old victim was wounded in Paterson, 60 miles from Riverview Medical Center, where he landed in the emergency room.
RED BANK: SIMS CONVICTION OVERTURNED
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
Anthony Sims, who was found guilty in the 2014 shooting of a man seated in a car parked in Red Bank, may get a new trial following an appellate court decision issued Monday.
Sims, 32 years old, was wrongly convicted in part based on statements he gave to detectives without having been told why he was under arrest, the three-judge panel found.
Additionally, because the victim of the Willow Street shooting did not testify at trial, but his statements to police were used, Sims was denied his constitutional right to confront his accuser, the court found.
RED BANK: BOROUGH MAN IN GANG SWEEP
By JOHN T. WARD
A Red Bank man was among 29 people from Monmouth and Ocean counties charged as a result of an eight-month probe of alleged gang activity that included drug sales, attempted murder and dogfighting, the Monmouth County Prosector’s Office announced Friday.
RED BANK: REPORT OF SHOT FIRED
Red Bank police were investigating a report of a shot fired on the West Side Friday afternoon.
No one was injured in the incident, which occurred around 1 p.m. on West Sunset Avenue between Leighton and Shrewsbury avenues, Chief Darren McConnell told redbankgreen.
RED BANK: POLICE-COMMUNITY FORUM SLATED
A Red Bank police officer speaking with a motorist during a stop on Leighton Avenue in 2015. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
[See UPDATE below]
By JOHN T. WARD
With cities across America erupting in violence in recent days over police abuses, Red Bank’s police department plans to hold an online forum on community relations Thursday.
LITTLE SILVER: STUDENT CHARGED FOR THREAT
Little Silver and Red Bank police investigated an apparent implied threat of violence at Red Bank Regional High School Sunday night before concluding there was no actual danger, they said Monday.
FAIR HAVEN: COUNCIL TAKES AIM AT POT, GUNS
Councilman Bob Marchese urged the council to ban recreational pot sales while allowing for medicinal trade. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Mixed in among discussions of yard sales and tree removals at the Fair Haven council’s semimonthly meeting Monday night were two issues of concern statewide and beyond: marijuana and guns.
RED BANK: HUNDREDS MARCH FOR GUN LIMITS
Joining a movement that arose from the slaughter of 17 students and adults at a Florida high school last month, hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Red Bank Saturday as part of a nationwide ‘March for Our Lives‘ effort to demand bans on assault weapons and other legislation to reduce gun violence in schools.
FAIR HAVEN: WALKOUTS GET DETENTION
Fair Haven Superintendent Sean McNeil, seen below at a January event, expressed pride in Knollwood students who walked out, but told them there had to be consequences. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Seventy-two Fair Haven middle school students were ordered to report for detention after participating in a walkout Wednesday to mark the one-month anniversary of a mass school shooting in Florida.
Meanwhile, just half a mile away, hundreds of Red Bank Regional High students observed the nationwide walkout without penalty. But the fact that they were sequestered within the confines of the school stadium, and surrounded by police, irked at least one student.
RBR SUPERINTENDENT: ADDRESS GUN ACCESS
Superintendent Louis Moore speaking at an anti-hate rally in Red Bank last August. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
This essay, titled ‘Schools Will Not Be Secure Until We Address Access to Lethal Weapons,’ was submitted to redbankgreen by Red Bank Regional High Superintendent Louis Moore.
Since the tragedy at Columbine High School almost 20 years ago, school districts have implemented measures to protect students and staff from the threat of a mass shooting. Entrances have been hardened with “mantraps” and bullet resistant glass. “Active shooter” drills are now regularly conducted along with fire drills. New security staff have been hired and all staff are trained on best security practices.
Yet the brutal massacre in Parkland, Florida demonstrates that schools remain vulnerable and the threat is ongoing. Read More
RED BANK: MOMS FLOCK TO GUN LAW EVENT
Amy Downey offered cookies prior to the start of a Moms Demand Action orientation meeting that drew a full house to Shapiro’s Tuesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The murders of 17 people by a gunman in Florida last week prompted a hasty new-member orientation in Red Bank Tuesday night for an organization dedicated to what it calls “common sense gun laws.”
Volunteers with Moms Demand Action said the February 14 slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland has unleashed a surge of interest unseen since the group’s founding five years ago in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut murders of 27 children and adults.
RUMSON: SUICIDE PROMPTS ARMED RESPONSE
Authorities cordoned off Ridge Road from Bellevue Avenue, above, to Buena Vista Avenue. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A suicide with a firearm prompted a heavy turnout of police and armored vehicles in Rumson Sunday morning, a spokesman for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s office said.
RED BANK: VIGIL SPEAKERS AIM AT GUN LAWS
Held in response to the the sniper attack that killed 59 concertgoers and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas Sunday night, the event ended with a shared lighting of candles. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Once again, Red Bank area residents gathered for a march and vigil Wednesday night to protest senseless, gun-related violence in America.
This time, the brief event, attended by about 50 participants, had a more consistently political, rather than spiritual, tone.
RED BANK: VIGIL AGAINST VIOLENCE PLANNED
Red Bank-area religious and political leaders are once again organizing an anti-violence vigil, this time in the aftermath of the Las Vegas sniper attack that killed at least 58 concertgoers and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas Sunday night.
RED BANK: MAN GRAZED BY GUNSHOT
By JOHN T. WARD
A 41-year-old man suffered a superficial wound when a gun was fired during an altercation at a strip mall in Red Bank early Saturday morning, according to police Chief Darren McConnell.
RED BANK: SIMS GETS 50 FOR MURDER TRY
By JOHN T. WARD
A former Red Bank man found guilty last month in the 2014 shooting of a man as he sat in a parked car on Willow Street was sentenced to 50 years in state prison Friday, according to an announcement by Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.
RED BANK: SIMS GUILTY OF MURDER ATTEMPT
By JOHN T. WARD
A former Red Bank man who did time for a double shooting in 2007 was found guilty in the 2014 shooting of a man as he sat in a parked car in Red Bank, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced Tuesday afternoon.
Anthony Sims, seen in the decade-old photo at right, was convicted of first-degree attempted murder in the April 9, 2014 attack on Perry Veney Jr., who is separately charged with later participation in the murder of Sims’ brother in Eatontown.
RED BANK: ATTEMPTED-MURDER TRIAL BEGINS
By JOHN T. WARD
A former Red Bank man who did time for a double shooting in 2007 was in court again Tuesday, this time accused of the 2014 shooting of a man as he sat in a parked car on Willow Street.
But witnesses in the Freehold trial of Anthony Sims have been instructed not to say anything in front of jurors about a second set of charges, in which the victim in this case, Perry Veney Jr., is alleged to have later participated in the murder of Sims’ brother, the Asbury Park Press reported Tuesday.
RED BANK: VENEY CHARGED WITH MURDER
By JOHN T. WARD
A man who was shot six times as he sat in a car parked in Red Bank almost three years ago was charged with a murder committed in Eatontown 15 months later, the Monmouth County Prosecutor announced Friday.
Perry Veney, 30, a former Red Bank resident whose last address was in Long Branch, was one of two men charged in the murder of Rasheem Palmer, 37, at the entrance to the Country Club Apartments complex in July, 2015, according to a prepared statement by Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.
RED BANK: ARREST IN 2014 DOUBLE SHOOTING
Police tape in a trash can a day after the November, 2014, shooting, which occurred near the telephone pole at center above. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The alleged gunman who shot two people seated in a truck parked on Red Bank’s West Side almost two years ago has been arrested.
Inow Rainey, 26 of Stony Hill Road in Eatontown, was arrested Friday and charged with attempted murder in the November 6, 2014 shooting, which left a man partially paralyzed and a woman briefly in critical condition.
It was also the first in a series of shootings in the area that police attributed to grudges and had neighbors on edge.
RED BANK: COPS SEEK HELP ON SHOTS FIRED
Red Bank police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man who fired at least two shots on the West Side Wednesday afternoon.
Chief Darren McConnell told redbankgreen Wednesday night that police recovered two shell casings from the scene of the 4:15 p.m. incident, on Tilton Avenue near West Bergen Place.
RED BANK: REPORT OF SHOTS INVESTIGATED
Red Bank police are investigating a report of shots fired on the West Side Wednesday afternoon, according to Chief Darren McConnell.
No one has been found to have been injured in the purported shooting, which occurred at about 4:15 p.m. on Tilton Avenue near the corner of West Sunset Avenue, he said.
RED BANK: GUN VIOLENCE ALERT GOES ORANGE
Washington Street resident Evan Sabo, 10, and his mom, Brett Sabo, showed up at the Red Bank council meeting Wednesday night clad in orange to accept a proclamation declaring Gun Violence Awareness Day in the borough, slated for Thursday, June 2.
Moms Demand Action, which organized the nationwide event, is asking the public to wear orange that day, in a nod to the orange vests hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves. Brett’s involved in the New Jersey chapter, and Evan, a student at the Mastro Montessori School in Shrewsbury, lobbied Mayor Pasquale Menna for the proclamation, Menna said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)