TOMS RIVER, NJ – There was once a time in New Jersey where it wouldn’t even be a discussion. If you commit murder, you would be placed in jail until your hearing with a ridiculously high bail. If you committed two, even higher. In 2022, the discussion on whether or not to keep double-murder suspect Tyshaun Drummond in prison was had. In this case, Judge Wendel Daniels ordered the killer to remain behind bars.
On December 19, 2021, at approximately 7:20 a.m., Officers from the Lakewood Township Police Department were summoned to an apartment complex on River Avenue for a report of shots having been fired. Police Dispatch was able to supply the Officers with a description of the suspect who fired the shots. Responding officers located an individual matching the description – later identified as Drummond – in front of the apartment complex. Officers ordered Drummond to lay on the ground; when Drummond refused to comply, he was subdued by way of a department-issued Conducted Energy Device (CED).
Upon entering the apartment building, Officers discovered the deceased bodies of Nicholas Hardy and Sergio Chavez-Perez; both men were observed to have been shot in the head. An investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit, Lakewood Township Police Department, and Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, identified Drummond as the individual responsible for the victims’ deaths.
Daniels ordered that Tyshaun Drummond, 39, of Toms River, shall remain detained in the Ocean County Jail pending trial on two counts of Murder in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3a(1), in connection with the deaths of Nicholas Hardy, 36, of Toms River, and Sergio Chavez-Perez, 32, of Lakewood, in the early morning hours of December 19, 2021, in Lakewood Township. Drummond is also charged with Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:39-4a(1), Unlawful Possession of a Weapon in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5b(1), and Burglary in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:18-2b(1).
Drummond has been lodged in the Ocean County Jail since his release from a local hospital on December 21, 2021. The detention hearing was handled by Assistant Prosecutor Brandon DeJesus.