Gang Violence in Ocean County? Suspect in Latest Shooting Arrested in Lakewood

JACKSON-Gang and drug-related public shootings are on the rise in Ocean County with the latest incident occurring in Jackson Township in a public shopping center parking lot early Sunday morning.  One suspect has been arrested in that attack that sent two men to the hospital.

Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced that Maleek Dorsey, age 27, of Lakewood was arrested and charged with two counts of Attempted Murder.

On December 29, 2019, Jackson Township Police responded to Jackson Crossing Plaza in regard to multiple 911 calls for gunshots being fired. As Jackson Township Police were securing the scene, they received a telephone call from the Lakewood Township Police Department advising them that two males were just admitted to Monmouth Medical Southern Campus Hospital in Lakewood with apparent gunshot wounds. The two involved parties were transported to Robert Wood Johnson Memorial Hospital, where they remain in stable condition. An investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit and Jackson Township Police Detective Bureau identified Dorsey as a participant in the shooting. On December 30, 2019, a search warrant was executed for a residence in Lakewood by the Lakewood Township SWAT Team, where Dorsey was apprehended. Dorsey was processed and transported to the Ocean County Jail where he is currently lodged pending a detention hearing.

“This is investigation is far from over. Anyone that wishes to come forward with more information should contact Detective Brant Uricks of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-929-2027. This remains an active and ongoing investigation,” Prosecutor Billhimer stated.

This is the latest in a string of what appears to be gang or drug-related shootings that have plagued Ocean County in the past several months.  Brick Mayor John Ducey was the first to suggest the increase in shootings were gang-related.

“These people are members of gangs that are region-wide, if not nationwide,” Ducey told the Asbury Park Press in November.   Ducey later said that he had no knowledge as to whether or not those shootings were gang-related.

Brick’s chief of police

In October a student in Brick Township was shot as he was walking home from school.

A few days earlier gunshots rang out in a Brick condo complex that sent one man to the hospital.