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In a Thursday morning news briefing outlining the results of an internal review of the law enforcement response to the brutal killing of Tamara Seidle on June 16, 2015, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni further outlined details of the findings.

The report concludes that although deadly force could not have reasonably been used against Philip Seidle, who killed his wife Tamara in the middle of a residential neighborhood, ineffective communication, a lack of information about whether Philip Seidle was involved in police activity, as well as an absence of command and control by the highest ranking officer first  on scene, contributed to the chaotic events of last year, Gramiccioni said.

“The events that unfolded the morning of June 16, 2015 were extraordinary and aberrational,” he said. “The factual scenario that defined this incident is not found in textbooks or in state mandated training standards at our police academy because it could not have been anticipated.  It was necessary to view this incident through a critical lens to determine what lessons can be learned and improvements made to law enforcement in Monmouth County.”

Off-duty Neptune Township Police Sgt. Philip Seidle killed his ex-wife, Tamara Seidle, near the heavily populated residential intersection of Ridge and Sewall avenues in Asbury Park, at approximately 11:28 a.m. on June 16, 2015, according to news release issued following the briefing.

“This was simply a crime of passion,” he said.

The killing occurred after a high-speed car chase that culminated with Seidle crashing into Tamara’s car, firing a gun into her vehicle in two separate volleys, and then putting the gun to his own head threatening suicide.

“As if the senseless brutality of Tamara’s murder was not in its own right unimaginably violent, the fact that Seidle committed this act in front of their 7-year-old child, who sat in his vehicle at the time he fired the first round of gunshots, shocked the conscience of an entire community and law enforcement,” the release states.

The Internal Review also disclosed a deficiency in the domestic violence policies and procedures that currently exist statewide.

“It is clear that domestic violence incidents that do not rise to the level of the filing of criminal charges or a temporary restraining order being issued may still call into question the fitness-for-duty of a police officer,” Gramiccioni said. “Moreover, a police officer who has numerous Internal Affairs complaints – either due to internal departmental policy violations or from complaints by citizens – raises a red flag which may warrant a fitness-for-duty evaluation by the agency.”

For more details, see MONMOUTH COUNTY PROSECUTOR UNVEILS SEIDLE INTERNAL REVIEW INVESTIGATION FINDINGS

“We are hopeful this new Early Warning System will provide an added layer of oversight to root out police officers who tarnish the badges that the vast majority of officers wear with honor,” Gramiccioni said.

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