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Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni has announced the launch of a formal investigation into the actions of responding police officers during last week’s tragic shooting and death of Neptune resident Tamara Seidle.

Veteran Neptune Township police officer Phil Seidle, 51, was immediately charged with the first degree murder of his 51-year-old ex-wife on June 16, Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Marc LeMieux said.

Seidle, who was off duty at the time, is also charged with second degree possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose and endangering the welfare of his 7-year-old daughter, who was a passenger in her father’s vehicle as he gave chase of his wife’s car.

The Asbury Park Police Department was investigating an unrelated motor vehicle accident near Seawall and Ridge avenues when officers observed the incident. Officers at the scene recognized Seidle, who was eventually coerced into relinquishing his firearm when shown cellphone pictures of his nine children, LeMieux said.

Below is Gramiccioni’s complete statement:

“Yesterday morning, I informed the police chiefs of the Asbury Park and Neptune Township Police Departments that our Office will conduct the Internal Affairs review and evaluation of the performance of the responding officers to last week’s tragic shooting by off-duty Neptune Township Police Officer Philip Seidle.

“This review will be conducted by our Professional Responsibility Bureau to ensure a thorough review and evaluation is performed that will stand up to the scrutiny from the community.

“It is imperative that we look at this incident with a critical eye towards doing all that we can to understand what transpired and learning how, moving forward, we can improve from that evaluative process.

“In order to clearly understand every aspect of this response, every sworn law enforcement officer involved in the incident will be part and parcel of this Internal Affairs review and evaluation.

“Our Internal Affairs function will be limited in scope to this singular incident and the actions of those officers at the scene.  Any administrative actions based on our findings that may be imposed on anyone involved will be at the discretion of the individual police departments who employ these officers.

“In order for the law enforcement community to maintain the trust of our citizens, and earn the trust of those that may question the sincerity of our efforts, this review process must be transparent.  To that end, I will be publicly releasing a report detailing our findings.

“This will be a deliberate and all-encompassing review that will take time to complete, but rest assured this review will be conducted in as expedient manner possible for all involved.”

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