Report: Man Killed Outside Hardcore Concert In Asbury Park; Band Denies Involvement

Michelle Sahn of the Asbury Park Press reports that a 25-year-old man was killed Sunday afternoon (January 14) outside Deep club in Asbury Park, New Jersey where several hardcore bands — including Boston, MA's RAMALLAH and Stroudsburg, PA's WISDOM IN CHAINS — were scheduled to perform later that day.

James C. Morrison (photo),of the New Gretna section of Bass River in Burlington County, was pronounced dead Sunday evening at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune. The case is proceeding as a homicide investigation, authorities said.

While the events of that evening are still being investigated, there was an argument and a fight, "which at some juncture, proceeded outside," said First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter Warshaw.

"The exact role that Mr. Morrison played in any of this remains under investigation," said Warshaw. "Police are still working to piece together precisely what happened."

But at 5:50 p.m., Asbury Park police received a call indicating that Morrison had sustained injuries, he said.

They responded and found the 25-year-old on the ground in front of the club, said Warshaw. Morrison was taken to the hospital in Neptune, where he was pronounced dead around 6:30 p.m.

Warshaw said based on the findings so far, Morrison's death does not appear to be gang-related.

Caroline O'Toole, the general manager of Deep, said the incident happened on the sidewalk outside the club, but she did not know any details about what took place.

Morrison's mother, Lorrie Morrison, 44, of Little Egg Harbor, said her son and his friends arrived at the club around 5 p.m. because they wanted to hear one of the bands that was set to play.

She said she was being given little information by authorities about what happened, but had talked to her son's friends.

"They were sitting at the bar and had a couple of drinks," she said. "There was something where guys were arguing and, out of the blue, one guy threw a bar stool at my son and hit him in the head."

She said her son was struck by a stool a second time, this time in the side of his body, she said.

The members of the Boston band RAMALLAH, who were the scheduled headliners at Deep Sunday evening, have posted a message on their MySpace page distancing themselves from Sunday's events. "None of RAMALLAH was involved, nor did we see anything that happened," the group said in the statement. "We also did not know the kid that was killed. We have been blamed, lumped in with whoever was involved, and received tons of negative emails about what happened. None of this is our fault, we were supposed to play a show and didn't. Most of the people voicing their opinions were also not at the show and know even less about what happened than we do."

Read more at the Asbury Park Press.