Online dispute turns into large student brawl at Pier Village

Long Branch — A dispute on social media apparently escalated to a large fight police had to break up at Pier Village this weekend.

Long Branch Police responded to a reported large fight involving over 100 high school-age children in Pier Village at 9:50 p.m. on Sunday evening.

When the first responding officer arrived, he noted over 150 kids still huddled in a large group in the center area of Pier Village.

“It seems that two Long Branch High School girls have been having an ongoing dispute and as a result of social media they decided to fight down at the oceanfront and the large group turned out to watch,” said Police Chief Jason Roebuck.

Roebuck stated that when the officers arrived, the fight was over. When police attempted to disperse the crowd things began to get unruly.

“A sergeant asked one young man to leave and that individual started cursing and becoming belligerent. When the sergeant attempted to arrest the juvenile he resisted and assaulted the officer,” Roebuck said.

Police report nine juveniles were taken to police headquarters and five were arrested and charged with either resisting arrest, assault on a police officer, spitting on police and other related offenses.

The Monmouth County Sherriff’s Office also assisted the Long Branch Police Officers during the melee. Roebuck stated that the police officers then started to usher/escort the juveniles off the oceanfront.

One other scuffle occurred with another juvenile getting arrested on Chelesa Ave.

During the early part of the police response, officers had to deploy pepper spray to break up the mob. No one suffered and reported injuries as a result of the spray.

Several officers suffered cuts and scrapes and one had a finger broken.