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RED BANK: CRIME-SITE PATROL NABS THREE

Police on the scene of the shooting at Montgomery Terrace Tuesday morning. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

See UPDATE below

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank njIncreased police activity at the scene of a shootout in Red Bank earlier this week led to the arrests of three men late Wednesday night, police said Thursday.

The incident, however, “does not appear to be linked to the shooting,” in which two men exchanged gunfire, landing one of them in the hospital, Captain Mike Frazee told redbankgreen.

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RED BANK: POLICE INVESTIGATE SHOOTOUT

Captain Mike Frazee, in white shirt, and investigators on the scene at Montgomery Terrace Tuesday morning. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

hot topic red bank njTwo armed men appear to have engaged in an early morning gun battle that left one of them wounded early Tuesday morning, Red Bank police said.

At least eight shots are known to have been exchanged in the shootout at Montgomery Terrace Apartments, Captain Mike Frazee told redbankgreen.

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RED BANK: SEARCH LEADS TO DRUG BUST

Red Bank police arrested a borough man on drug and weapons charges, Chief Darren McConnell said in a prepared statement issued Friday afternoon.

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RED BANK: HOUSING UPGRADES PROMISED

red bank housing authority evergreen terraceThe Evergreen Terrace senior apartments and the nearby Montgomery Terrace units would get a more reliable source of funding for repairs, officials said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Residents of Red Bank’s two publicly subsidized housing complexes will see improvements to their communities under planned funding changes, an official assured them last week.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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RED BANK: SIMS INDICTED IN APRIL SHOOTING

anthony sims 2007Anthony Sims in a photo released by police in 2007. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

A former Red Bank man who did time for a double shooting in 2007 has been indicted for the April shooting of a man as he sat in a parked car.

A Monmouth County grand jury handed down the charged against Anthony Sims, 25, a Long Branch resident who pleaded guilty in 2010 to shooting two brothers on the borough’s West Side three years earlier.

In the more recent incident, the victim, Perry Veney, was shot as he sat behind the wheel of a car parked on Willow Street.

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RED BANK: HOOPS AT THE TERRACE

RB HOOPS 2RB HOOPS 1After a recent facelift by donors and volunteers, the long-disused basketball court at Montgomery Terrace in Red Bank saw some action over the past three weekends, as the Community YMCA and others hosted a basektball clinic for kids who lived nearby.

Among the instructors: YMCA chief executive officer Rhonda Anderson, who played college hoops at Cornell and is in the school’s athletic hall of fame. (Click to enlarge)

RED BANK: EX-CON HELD IN SHOOTING

anthony sims 2007Anthony Sims in a photo released by police in 2007. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Red Bank police have a suspect in custody for last week’s shooting of a man as he sat in a car parked on Willow Street – and the alleged shooter is well-known hereabouts.

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, was arrested Monday and charged in the April 9 shooting, Police Chief Darren McConnell tells redbankgreen.

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RED BANK: COURT GETS ITS GAME BACK

Missing for years, the backboards and hoops at Montgomery Terrace have returned. (Photos by Sarah Klepner. Click to enlarge)

By SARAH KLEPNER

Basketball hoops said to have been removed after a double shooting in 2007 are back at Red Bank’s Montgomery Terrace apartment complex on the West Side.

The return of the rims was praised by residents, who said the court will give idle youngsters an outlet. Last week, some kids talked about what the change means to them.

“I’m happy they’re back so kids can play here instead of in the parking lot, where people’s cars are,” a boy named Jayron told redbankgreen.

“And it’s good we have a place where we can chill, and hang out, and not argue,” added a girl, Nydasia.

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REMEMBERING RIYADHNA

A crowd of hundreds applauded a performance of “The Greatest Love of All” at a candlelight vigil in memory of Riyadhna Farrow. (Photos by Stacie Fanelli. Click to enlarge.)

By STACIE FANELLI

Dozens of loving messages honoring Riyadhna Farrow, known to some as “RiRi,” were written on the door of her Red Bank home Friday night as hundreds gathered there for a vigil in her memory.

The 18-year-old Red Bank Regional High School senior died suddenly last Monday.

The Count the Children Movement organized the event for friends, packed tight in a parking lot at the Montgomery Terrace apartment complex, to share their fondest memories of Farrow and for borough, school and church administrators to remind those closest to her of Red Bank’s support.

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SIMS PLEADS GUILTY IN ’07 DOUBLE SHOOTING

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Facing a second trial after a Monmouth County jury deadlocked on attempted murder charges, Anthony Sims has pleaded guilty to shooting two brothers in Red Bank in November, 2008, the Asbury Park Press reports.

According to the Press, the 21-year-old Eatontown resident

pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree attempted passion provocation manslaughter, admitting he did shoot brothers Brandon Graves, 24, and Anthony Graves Jr., 28, both of Eatontown, on the evening of Nov. 26, 2007 outside the Montgomery Terrace apartment complex off Tilton Avenue.

Answering questions from defense attorney Robert J. Konzelmann, Sims maintained the Graves brother provoked him, but withdrew the self-defense claims presented at trial.

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JURY DEADLOCKS ON SHOOTING CHARGES

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The jury in the attempted-murder trial of Anthony Sims could not reach a unanimous decision on charges related to the shootings of two brothers at Red Bank’s Montgomery Terrace apartments in November, 2008, today’s Asbury Park Press reports.

After more than three days of deliberations, the same jury acquitted Sims, 21, of attempting to kill a third man, the newspaper reports.

Sims, of Eatontown, had admitted shooting brothers Anthony an Brandon Graves, but claimed self-defense. The shooting left Brandon Graves paralyzed from the neck down.

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SIMS ADMITS SHOOTING

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The attempted murder trial of Anthony Sims took a turn yesterday when the defendant admitted firing shots that hit two brothers and missed a third man, according to today’s Asbury Park Press.

The November, 2008 shooting at Montgomery Terrace apartments in Red Bank occurred after an argument over drug money between Sims’ mother and one of the victims, an alleged member of the Bloods gang, Sims testified.

According to the Press, Sims admitted he fired the shots, but said he had no intention of going outside of the apartment where he overheard the dispute to confront the three men until “they threatened to come inside the house.”

The victims “were armed and pulling their guns out when he shot them,” the newspaper reports of Sims’ account.

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ACCUSATIONS FLY AT SIMS TRIAL

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The trial of alleged Montgomery Terrace shooter Anthony Sims got underway in Freehold last week, and going by the coverage in the Asbury Park Press, it sounds like a trashfest:

Who dissed whose mother.  Whose mother is a crackhead. Who boasted membership in a gang that he may not have had.

Sims, 21, of Eatontown, is accused of shooting brothers Anthony and Brandon Graves, and firing at but missing a third man, in a dispute at the Montgomery Terrace public housing complex on Red Bank’s West Side shortly before midnight on November 26, 2007. Sims’ girlfriend lived in the complex.

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