By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
It was quiet in the 1200 block of Monroe Avenue in Asbury Park Feb. 2 where only the day before, a double shooting had taken place.
Neighbor Jessie Bennett, who was walking her daughter in a stroller with her adolescent son by her side, said she may be looking for a new home following this recent shooting. She lives on the same block where the shooting occurred.
On Mon., Feb. 1 at approximately 2:24 p.m. Asbury Park police responded to a report of a shooting in the 120 block of Monroe Ave. where two victims were discovered. The victims, a 25-year-old man and a 24-year-old man, both of Asbury Park, were taken to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and Asbury Park Police are investigating the incident. There have been no arrests at this time.
Anyone with any information about this incident is urged to call Detective Michael Bonanno of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office at 1-800-533-7443, or Detective Joseph Spallina of the Asbury Park Police Department at 732-774-1300.
Down the street is Little Class Preschool where parents had to maneuver around police lines to pick up their children on Monday.
Bennet, a mother of seven, said as she was walking home on Monday when police told her to get back.
“But I live here, I think I have a right to know what’s going on,” she said. “I’m worried. This is scary.”
Pointing to her middle school aged son she said, “He didn’t come right home after school yesterday and I was really worried.”
Bennett said she picks her kids up everyday from school, but some children walk home alone.
She also said maybe it’s time for the preschool to move to another neighborhood.
“They need to relocate, so much happens on this street. And what makes it worse is it’s happening in broad daylight,” she said referencing the shooting death last year of a Neptune woman while she sat in her car. Neptune Police Sgt. Philip Seidle has been indicted for the shooting.
