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Kahniaha X. Dean, 25, of Neptune Township and Ishawn A. Collazo, 26, of Long Branch are both charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and several weapons and drug offenses, according to Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey.
Dean was charged individually with aggravated assault and making terroristic threats, Linskey said.
At approximately 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 29, 2021, Neptune police responded to shots being fired on the 400 block of Fisher Avenue and located several spent 9mm shell casings.
Moments later, they discovered an adult male shooting victim in a nearby parked vehicle. The victim was subsequently taken to Jersey Shore Regional Medical Center for treatment.
Shortly after 10 p.m. on Jan. 1, 2022, Neptune police responded to the 300 block of Neptune Boulevard for another report of shots being fired, and upon arrival, they discovered another adult male shooting victim. Additional 9mm shell casings were recovered at the scene, and the victim was taken to Jersey Shore Regional Medical Center for treatment.
Following review of evidence recovered at the scene, investigators determined that another incident had taken place only minutes earlier at a nearby apartment on the 2000 block of Milton Avenue, where an assailant attempted to shoot the same adult male who had been shot days earlier, Linskey said. The assailant’s gun jammed, however, and the masked shooter fled the scene – leaving behind a live 9mm round that had been ejected from the gun.
A joint investigation by the MCPO Major Crimes Bureau, the Neptune Township Police Department, and the Long Branch Police Department resulted in Dean and Collazo being identified as suspects in all three incidents, Linskey said.
The investigation also revealed that the day before the first attempted murder, that same shooting victim was threatened by Dean at gunpoint in a park in Long Branch, but no shots were fired, she said.
Dean and Collazo were arrested shortly after 11:45 p.m. on Jen. 14 by Woodbridge police, who responded to a report of a man brandishing a gun outside a nightclub on Lafayette Road and conducted a traffic stop of their vehicle. A search of the car revealed a loaded handgun under a seat, and the investigation subsequently determined that it was the same weapon used in each of the shooting incidents, Linskey said.
Also recovered from the vehicle was a large amount of cocaine, drug distribution paraphernalia, and a loaded submachine gun with a folding stock, the prosecutor said.
This case has been assigned to Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Luciano.
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