GoFundMe Started For Long Branch Police Standoff Apartment Fire

LONG BRANCH, NJ — This GoFundMe has been started for the residents who lived in a Long Branch apartment building that was completely burned to the ground in a nine-hour-long police standoff Friday.

Residents who lived in the apartment building described the stand-off and shoot-out as "nerve wrecking."

As Patch previously reported, the incident began Friday afternoon, when detectives with the Monmouth County Prosecutor executed a search warrant at the apartment on the 200 block of Chelsea Avenue. A man in the apartment was wanted in a murder investigation. Police said as they were entering the home, the man inside shot one of the officers in the lower leg.

The stand-off then proceeded to last for the next nine hours, until around 2 a.m. at which point police say someone deliberately set a fire to the building. NBC New York reports that the man ran out of the burning building holding his girlfriend's two-week-old baby and a police shield as he fired at the officers.

Officers returned fire, killing the man. The officer who was shot was released from the hospital that same night.

Now, multiple families are left homeless by the fire. The apartment building was completely destroyed by the fire, said police.

"As most of you Long Branch and New Jersey residents are aware, there was a nerve wrecking standoff and house fire that occurred on Chelsea Ave, Long Branch," wrote the GoFundMe organizer. "This hits extremely hard for my family as we have been longstanding residents, 30+ years, of the building that was set fire. My mother and brothers in one apartment, and my uncle and his family in another, both of which were upstairs apartments, have lost everything in their homes due to damages the building suffered from the engulfing flames."

"This is the only home any of us ever knew and was a common ground for many family celebrations and memories."

So far, the page has raised $30,000 of its $60,000 goal. Prior Patch report: Long Branch Man Wanted In Murder Investigation Killed In Shootout

Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com Be the first to know. Sign up to get Patch emails: https://patch.com/subscribe