Crime & Safety

Man Arrested In Tire Iron Assault In 2011 Indicted On Terroristic Threats, Contempt

Kenneth W. Morris previously indicted in assault incident on a township man and police chase that left four officers injured

A township man has been indicted for the second time in less than a year in connection with a tire iron assault incident that eventually led to four police officers being injured after a high speed pursuit.

An Ocean County grand jury recently charged Kenneth W. Morris with making terroristic threats against Antonio Aviles by threatening to kill him in Berkeley Township on July 11, 2012.

Morris was also indicted for disobeying a restraining order that forbid him to have any contact with Aviles, according to the indictment.

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Morris was previously indicted in August 2012 on 15 counts, ranging from aggravated assault to eluding after a November 2011 incident where he was accused of beating Aviles with a tire iron and injuring four Berkeley Township police officers after a high-speed pursuit.

Police said then they responded to a report that Morris had hit a man in the head with a tire iron outside a Brennan Concourse home and then fled in his pickup truck.

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Berkeley Patrolman Patrick Stesner spotted the truck as it was headed south on Harbor Inn Road. Stesner tried to pull Morris over, but Morris fled. He drove through Lacey and Beachwood, then down Route 9 at a high rate of speed through Berkeley before he returned to Brennan Concourse, police said.

Police officers were stationed at the residence, so Morris drove down Brennan Concourse toward Berkeley Island County Park. The gates were locked. Morris did a U-turn and sped back along Brennan Concourse, ramming the cars of Stesner, Michael O'Connor and David Moody and Sgt. Peter Larocca, police have said.

Stesner, Moody and O'Connor suffered neck and back injuries.Larocca was treated for a facial injury at the scene, police have said.

Morris was indicted on three counts of second-degree aggravated assault and second-degree aggravated assault while eluding resulting in bodily injury, for ramming the cars of Stesner, Moody and O'Connor.

He was also indicted on two counts of third-degree aggravated assault, for hitting Larocca and in the assault of Antonio Aviles, whom Morris is accused of hitting with a tire iron; two counts of third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and two of unlawful possession of a weapon, for the tire iron and the 1993 Ford Lightning pickup truck, and counts of criminal mischief, for the damage to the police cars, eluding, and resisting arrest.

Morris was the same man who barricaded himself in his Northern Boulevard earlier in 2011. The roadway was closed to residents during the incident, which lasted for hours.


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