Teen In Shooting Near Brick Memorial HS Pleads Guilty, Will Serve Prison Term

Gavel (Credit: Brian Turner/Flickr)

The Asbury Park teen who shot another juvenile who was walking home from Brick Memorial High School in Oct. 2019 has pleaded guilty as an adult to charges of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Alonzo Legrande, 18, of Asbury Park, was 17-year-old at the time of the shooting and could have been prosecuted in family court, but he waived that right a week before the plea was struck. At the time of his sentencing on Nov. 20, 2020, prosecutors will recommend that Legrande be sentenced to a term of 10 years New Jersey State Prison, and be subject to the No Early Release Act, which mandates offenders serve 85 percent of their sentences before being considered for parole.

“Our law enforcement partners at the local, county, state, and federal levels, displayed a tremendous amount of teamwork and collaboration to swiftly investigate this crime and bring these individuals into custody,” Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said in a statement Thursday, referring also to Legrande’s co-defendant, who also pleaded guilty.

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The shooting, which occurred at about 1:45 p.m. on Lanes Mill Road, resulted in the injured student returning to the school, about a quarter-mile away, to ask for help. That resulted in a lockdown of students who were still on campus involved in extra-curricular activities, and police sealing off the surrounding neighborhood.

As part of their investigation, detectives from Brick police, the prosecutor’s office and Ocean County Sheriff’s Department reviewed video surveillance footage from nearby residences. The video surveillance depicted Legrande and Luis Rivas, who was also a juvenile at the time and has also agreed to be prosecuted as an adult, “acting together and in support of one another in carrying out the shooting,” a statement from Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said Thursday.

“A further investigation revealed that Legrande was, in fact, the individual who fired the weapon,” the statement said.

The victim was taken to Ocean Medical Center and released a short time later.

Legrande was apprehended on Oct. 23, 2019, and has been lodged in the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center since his apprehension.

Rivas has already pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, and is presently scheduled to be sentenced on October 2, 2020 at which time the State will be seeking a term of five years New Jersey State Prison.

“The level of coordination and collaboration exhibited by all the officers participating in this investigation was truly outstanding, and I am grateful for their collective assistance which has resulted in two very dangerous individuals being removed from our streets,” Billhimer said.