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More than two years after 18-year-old Semaj Mozee was shot to death in his Campbell Street apartment, city police arrested, a one-time friend of the teen's, Seneca Martin Mitchell Jr., 21, and charged him with the homicide.
Mitchell, who became a primary suspect in the fatal shooting shortly after it occurred in early October 2020, was taken into custody late Wednesday afternoon at his home at 1610 Sherman St., police said.
Mozee was shot in the neck as he stood at the front door of his second-floor apartment at 667 Campbell St. about 12:05 a.m. Oct. 5, according to Agent Aaron LeVan. Mozee was in the apartment with other individuals when there was a knock on the door, LeVan said.
A juvenile in the apartment opened the door and saw a gunman with a mask over his face, according to an affidavit written by LeVan. "The juvenile was pushed away from the door by Mozee, who slammed the door shut," the agent said. Two gunshots were suddenly fired from an interior stairwell, one of them coming through the closed door and striking Mozee, who fell to the floor, LeVan said. Mozee was rushed to nearby UPMC Williamsport, but he died of his injuries a little more than hour later, police said.
It is alleged that Mitchell was the masked gunman who killed Mozee, police said.
Through his extensive investigation, LeVan learned that Mozee and Mitchell "used to be friends and hung out" together daily, but the two had "a falling out," court documents stated.
It appeared that the fallout centered around Mozee "hanging out" with an old associate, who, along with his own friends "were fighting with a local street gang known as the '400 Gang,'" LeVan said, adding that Mitchell was reportedly a member of that gang. Because Mozee had re-kindled a relationship with this former friend who was fighting the '400 Gang,' Mitchell and others in the gang now considered Mozee "as their enemy, or opps," a term "local gangs use when referring to rival gangs," LeVan explained.
An informant who knows Mitchell told investigators he saw Mitchell running from the scene.
Investigators also learned that on the night Mozee was murdered, he was involved in an online live argument with Mitchell and three of Mitchell's friends, and there was "talk about 'smoking' Mozee, a common term that refers to shooting" someone, LeVan said.
Mitchell was arraigned at 6:30 p.m. before District Judge William Solomon on numerous charges, including criminal homicide, burglary, aggravated assault, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, recklessly endangering and related offenses. He was automatically jailed in the Lycoming County Prison on no bail.