Experts: Police could have shot Philip Seidle

Police would have been justified in using deadly force against Neptune Police Sgt. Philip Seidle Tuesday morning to stop him from repeatedly shooting his ex-wife as she sat in her car on an Asbury Park street, law enforcement experts say.

Why police did not fire on Seidle during the shooting, which authorities said spanned several minutes and included two volleys of multiple shots, remains under investigation. Police at the scene knew who Seidle was, even though he was off-duty and out of uniform, authorities say.

Four law enforcement experts interviewed by the Asbury Park Press could not agree if the responding officers were hesitant to shoot a fellow cop — and someone they may have known personally.

"Should they have allowed him to shoot his wife again? No," said Tom Aveni, executive director of the Police Policy Studies Council, Spofford, New Hampshire, which provides training and consultation to police departments.

'Imminent danger'

Police may use deadly force when they have reason to believe that doing so is "immediately necessary protect the officer or another person from imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm," according to guidelines on the use of force from the New Jersey Attorney General's Office in 2000.

However, they are not obligated to use deadly force in any situation and should consider it a last resort, the guidelines say.

From the moment police arrived, Seidle could have reasonably been seen as a clear and immediate threat to his ex-wife, whom he had already shot, their child and bystanders, according to Jon Shane, a former Newark Police captain and associate professor at John Jay College's Department of Law & Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration, New York City.

"It would certainly be proportionate if they had used deadly force against him," Shane said.

Seidle is being held at the Monmouth County jail on $2 million bail on charges of murdering his ex-wife, Tamara Seidle, 51.

On Tuesday, Seidle, apparently upset about custody issues with the mother of his nine children, chased down Tamara Seidle's Volkswagen Jetta on Ridge Avenue in Asbury Park, causing it to crash into a parked car, First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Marc C. LeMieux said.

Philip Seidle exited his vehicle and then fired several shots from his police-issued .40-caliber Glock into the driver's side of the sedan, authorities said. The couple's 7-year-old daughter watched the situation unfold from the front seat of his vehicle, authorities say.

When police responded, Seidle put the weapon to his left temple. Officers persuaded Philip Seidle to allow them to rescue his daughter. Seidle then returned back to the Jetta and fired through the windshield, striking Tamara Seidle with additional bullets.

Raw video from eyewitnesses appears to show officers taking defensive positions behind vehicles next to the Jetta while the second barrage of shots rings out.

One or two minutes elapsed between the two volleys of gunfire, said Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni at a press conference after Seidle's first appearance in court.

The lack of police using force will be part of the investigation into the death of Tamara Seidle, he added.

Gramiccioni couldn't say what the appropriate course of action would have been at the scene. He did stressed that police officers in trouble with the law do not receive special treatment.

"We represent the state without passion or prejudice," he said.

When cops can kill

The experts acknowledge the condition of Tamara Seidle during the standoff should have some bearing on how much patience police could afford to give her ex-husband. Her need for medical attention should trump their obligation to talk her shooter into surrender, they said.

"They certainly have an obligation first to the victim," Shane said. "If getting the victim help more quickly means using deadly force to neutralize his threat, they can do that."

"If she was still alive when (paramedics) got there (and police did not force Seidle to stand down), that would look real bad," Aveni said.

Special treatment?

Why police didn't shoot Philip Seidle has many speculating that he was shown patience because he was a fellow officer.

That's unlikely, says Laurence Miller, a clinical forensic police psychologist who works with police departments in Palm Beach County, Florida.

"A police officer may give another officer courtesy of not writing them a traffic ticket … but when faced with a deadly force scenario, I don't know of any cop who is going to let themselves or another person get killed," he said.

Would a typical citizen have survived such an encounter with police? That's "doubtful," according to Robert Louden, a Georgian Court University professor and former chief hostage negotiator for the New York Police Department.

"I would have anticipated that they would have taken more aggressive action," he told the Press.

It's possible that officers were less assertive with Seidle because they knew him and believed they could convince him to surrender without further violence.

"If you've got a rapport already because you know them, or a you have a working relationship or something, you would rather talk them into surrendering rather than use force," Shane said.

When asked if he would expect an assailant to be peacefully arrested under these circumstances, Aveni, a 36-year officer who retired last year, said "Ordinarily, no."

"Whether or not this guy was given more patience or that he was given more deference because he was a police officer, that's possible. I don't know," he said.

Staff writer Andrew Ford contributed to this story. Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com