9-Hour Middletown Standoff Started With Fight Over Oxy: Report

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — What caused that intense 9-hour standoff at the McGuire's Grove apartments in Middletown last month that lasted for nine hours in which the suspect allegedly held his own father hostage?

A fight between two brothers over prescription painkillers, according to a report.

On June 26, James P. Guiney, 39, accused his brother, Timothy Guiney, of stealing his oxycodone and then assaulted him, reported the Asbury Park Press, which attended Guiney's detention hearing this week.

They men's father intervened, but James Guiney threw the older man to the ground and then allegedly herded his father and brother into a bedroom. He wouldn’t let them leave, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor William Visone told the judge this week.

Guiney’s brother managed to climb out a window and had his mother call the police.

Visone said that Guiney made threatening statements to the police and told police officers to shoot him. Officers threw smoke grenades into his apartment through the open windows, which he threw back at them, along with shards of glass, the prosecutor said. White smoke could be seen billowing from the Kimberly Court apartment that day.

The father eventually managed to escape as well, crawling out through a window, according to the APP.

But Guiney's defense attorney Michael Pappa said it was Monmouth County law enforcement that needlessly made the situation more stressful that day: More than 100 police officers filled McGuire's Grove on June 26, and Guiney became very agitated when he was told there was a sniper in combat gear with a rifle pointed at him.

Guiney was hit by a drunk driver and severely injured when he was 12 years old, and has been prescribed heavy doses of oxycodone for pain and depression related to that, his lawyer said.

Guiney has a lengthy criminal history, mostly for drug offenses. As Patch reported, he has been charged with two counts of third-degree criminal restraint, and resisting arrest, among other charges from that day.