Law enforcement couldn't have prevented an off-duty police officer from killing his ex-wife, according to prosecutors conducting an internal review of the case.
The results of the investigation were released by Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni on Thursday, a little more than a year after Neptune Township Sgt. Philip Seidle gunned down his ex-wife.
Seidle admitted chasing and shooting Tamara Wilson-Seidle while their 7-year-old daughter was in his car in June 2015. Seidle fired his service weapon several times into her vehicle after the chase. He let police take his daughter from his vehicle, and he put his service weapon to his head before firing again into her car.
An autopsy found Wilson-Seidle was killed by the first shots.
He pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. He faces 30 years behind bars when he's sentenced Aug. 18.
The investigation found the first officer on the scene failed to communicate "critical information," according to Gramiccioni. Officers were initially only responding to a report of shots fired, and the first officer didn't indicate that there was a car chase and a collision and that the driver had jumped out and fired eight shots into the other vehicle, Gramiccioni said.
"That material information would have been helpful to arriving officers," he said, noting that he would recommend discipline against that first officer.
Gramiccioni said all police departments in Monmouth County will be retrained on the appropriate protocols and procedures in relaying information over police radio because of the communication issues in the Seidle case.
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The investigation also concluded that there were a number of factors that determined why responding officers shouldn't have used deadly force against Seidle. The state attorney general's use-of-force policy prohibits officers from using deadly force against a person who's at risk of harming himself.
