Prosecutor: 28-Year-Old Gets 8 Years for 4-Year-Old’s Shooting

A 28-year-old man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the 2020 shooting of a 4-year-old Asbury Park girl, Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced.

Sciaire N. Jackson, of Lakewood, was sentenced on Wednesday the eight-year prison term.

The sentence is subject to the provisions of NERA, the No Early Release Act, requiring Jackson to serve 85 percent of the sentence imposed before becoming eligible for parole. Jackson had previously pleaded guilty to second-degree aggravated assault and second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose on June 21.

The case background …

At 1:35 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, a 4-year-old child was shot while sitting outside her family’s home with other family members on Boston Way, a residential village in Asbury Park. The child was shot in the upper thigh area, breaking the femur bone. Physicians treating the child at the time deemed the injury as serious, but non-life threatening.

A joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Asbury Park Police Department revealed that Jackson rode up on a bicycle and began firing a handgun at several people located outside of an apartment. 

The child, who was playing outside, was not the intended target of the shooting. A second person returned fire at Jackson. That person, however, has not has not yet been identified.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office