(Photo: COURTESY OF STATE NEWS SERVICE)

By: Amanda Oglesby

ASBURY PARK — Five men were hospitalized early Sunday as a result of a drive-by shooting near Atlantic Avenue and Monmouth Avenue, said Charles Webster, spokesman for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

Asbury Park Police were called to the scene at 11:31 p.m. Saturday and found three men with gunshot wounds, Webster said. Two other men with gunshot wounds went to the hospital in separate vehicles, he said.

“The five men were with a group of people when a car pulled up and fired several shots striking the victims before driving away from the scene,” Webster said in an email.

Three men — ages 25, 27 and 29 — remain hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, Webster said. Two more men — ages 27 and 31 — were treated and released, he said. The Prosecutor’s Office did not release the names of the victims.

In 2015, Asbury Park had the highest violent crime rate in Monmouth County, with 14.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, according to New Jersey State Police Uniform Crime Reports. Monmouth County, for comparison, had an average of 1.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents.

Yet, Asbury Park’s violent crime rate is down from 10 years earlier, when the rate was 20.6 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, according to State Police reports.

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