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Police arrest three men after shots are fired near boardwalk

LBPD officers chase suspect, discover loaded firearms

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Long Beach police arrested three men on June 18 after several gunshots rang out as police broke up a crowd of hundreds who had gathered on the beach — an incident that culminated in police officers’ chasing one of the men through a normally quiet East Beech Street neighborhood.

According to police, the incident began at 11 p.m., when police were clearing a crowd of approximately 500 people between Edwards and Monroe boulevard, and a fight broke out. “The initial call was for large groups on the beach, estimated to be about 500 kids,” said LBPD spokesman Lt. Eric Cregeen. “We don’t know where everyone was from, but for the most part the group was from the Freeport and Roosevelt area.”

Cregeen said that about 11 officers responded to the scene, and began moving the crowd from the beach onto the boardwalk. “As they started to clear the boardwalk, one of the officers heard shots fired,” he said. According to Cregeen, police determined that two men from Freeport and Roosevelt were involved in an altercation, and may have threatened to use guns.

Cregeen said that police set up a perimeter and stopped several vehicles that were leaving. “One car had a marijuana odor,” he said. “As the passengers exited the car, police saw [a] handgun on the floor.”

According to Cregeen, one of the occupants of the 2012 Chevrolet Camaro, 19-year-old Tylek Allen, told police that the gun belonged to him. He was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a firearm. Another occupant, Derek Pickney, 22, was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana.

Cregeen said that while police were searching the vehicle, officer Joe Wiemann radioed LBPD headquarters to say that he was in pursuit of a man who had fled the scene where the shots were reported. “Other officers followed suit, and chased him into rear yards of East Beech Street,” Cregeen said. “[The subject] ended up in the yard of a house on Monroe Boulevard.”

Nassau County police units also responded to the scene, Cregeen said, and an NCPD police helicopter assisted in the search.

Cregeen said that officers found the man — Freeport resident Kareem Edney, 21 — hiding in the bushes of a home on the 100 block of Monroe Boulevard, and arrested him.

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