According to a statement released by Brick Police, at approximately 3:44 pm officers responded to 254 Sawmill Road in response to a fight in progress.
Police say the first two responding officers found a group of six to eight people engaged in a dispute.
Officers attempted to investigate what had transpired when a juvenile female began to walk away refusing one of the officers’ orders to stop.
During that encounter, the juvenile turned and spit on the officer according to police.
At that point, the officer placed the female under arrest.
Police say a large crowd began to form and had grown to over a dozen people. The crowd became unruly, encroached upon the officers and began threatening them with bodily harm.
Two individuals threatened to kill the officers. The officers attempted to keep the crowd away as they secured the arrestee.
The crowd continued yelling, threatening and taunting the officers. Despite the officers’ attempts to keep the crowd away, several members of the crowd kept pushing up against them and pushing past the officers with one officer being struck.
According to police, additional Brick officers responded to the scene along with officers from Toms River and Pt. Pleasant Boro.
The crowd, which continued to grow, failed to obey officers’ orders to disperse and seven (7) additional arrests were made. Police say all of the arrestees, juveniles whose ages range from 14 to 17, are residents of the complex.
All were charged with Riot and additional charges which ranged from aggravated assault, resisting arrest, obstruction, terroristic threats and disorderly conduct.
One Brick officer received minor injuries and was treated by Brick Police EMS. All of the juveniles were lodged in the juvenile detention center.
The names of those arrested are not being released because of their ages according to police.