WOMAN/SON WOUNDED, MAN DECEASED IN APPARENT MONROE TWP ATTEMPTED MURDER/SUICIDE
(GCPO Press Release) In an early morning Friday (11/25) incident at a Poplar Lane residence in Monroe Township, Melissa Cakmak age 41 and her nine-year-old son sustained gunshot wounds and the man believed to have fired a handgun at them was found deceased by Gloucester County SWAT officers from what is believed to be a self-inflicted bullet wound.
Both Cakmak and her son were taken to Cooper Medical Center in Camden for treatment and are expected to survive. She was wounded in the torso and he had a graze wound to the hand.
Based on information gathered by officers of the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office and the Monroe Township Police Department, the following sequence of events was determined:
Robert Long age 48 had an argument Thursday at the residence of Long and Melissa Cakmak , with whom he had a romantic relationship, and she asked him to leave. He did so.
Thursday night (11/24), Long appeared at another Monroe Township NJ residence, where a physical altercation occurred between Long and the resident. Long left before police arrived but he was subsequently stopped while driving in Monroe Township, and served with a warrant by a Monroe Township officer charging him with driving while intoxicated. He was released in the care of a relative.
Melissa Cakmak was asleep in her residence at about 1:30 a.m today (11/25) when she awoke to find Long present, Long revealed a handgun, which he fired twice at Cakmak. The second discharge also wounded her son in the hand. Both mother and son were able to flee the residence.
Reports of shots fired drew local police, as well as officers from Franklin, Washington, Deptford and Elk townships and the Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office. When the status of the suspected shooter could not be immediately determined, the Gloucester County Special Weapons and Tactics unit was activated. SWAT officers entered the residence at about 5 a.m., finding Long deceased and the suspected weapon.