PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Police in Montgomery County are searching for a 19-year-old man they say fired onto a Norristown street and struck an innocent man, who was eating Thanksgiving dinner inside with his family.
Norristown police responded to the house near Arch and Basin streets around 9:30 p.m. Thursday, where 25-year-old Edilberto Miguel Palaez Moctezuma had been shot in the torso. According to family members, he was sitting at the table eating dinner when a single shot came through the window and struck him.
He died at the hospital shortly thereafter.
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Investigators say Palaez Moctezuma and his family had no connection to the shooting. They say it involved a dispute at a separate Thanksgiving dinner earlier that day at a house on Haws Avenue.
Police say 19-year-old Kevon Clarke and his girlfriend, Jacqueline Brown, as well as two of their friends, were asked to leave that party. When the host noticed alcohol was missing, Brown’s cousin texted her about it, assuming her friends had taken it.
They made arrangements to return the alcohol to the cousin outside of Clarke’s house, on Basin Street. When the cousin showed up, Clarke was reportedly brandishing a gun. She told officials that as she drove away, she heard multiple gunshots.
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Clarke then called the cousin’s phone, police say, shouting, “You trying to set me up, you could have got me [expletive] killed.” He then threatened to shoot up the cousin’s house.
Investigators determined the bullets fired from Clarke were the same that killed Palaez Moctezuma.
Two other men were seen on surveillance video running from the scene.
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Police issued an arrest warrant for Clarke and charged him with first-degree murder, third-degree murder and related gun offenses.
Authorities ask the public to call 911 if they have any information on his whereabouts. They can also call the Norristown Police Department at 610-270-0977 or the Montgomery County Detectives’ Tip Line at 610-278-3638.
The investigation is ongoing.