On Sept. 27, East Orange, N.J., police arrested 25-year-old Nicholas Welch in connection with the shooting death of Jessica Moore, 19, a student at Seton Hall University in nearby South Orange. Moore, a Disputanta, Va. native, was attending an off-campus fraternity party when Welch unleashed a hail of bullets on the crowd.
According to East Orange police, the sophomore psychology major died a hero. Partygoers said Moore was gunned down while attempting to help friend Nakeisha Vanterpool, who had been shot in the jaw.
Welch allegedly fired gunshots into the crowd of about 50 people after he was denied entry into the party. “The whole crowd was like a stampede. Girls were being trampled on … it was pure terror,” a recent Seton Hall graduate told the Star Ledger.
During a press conference, Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino said Welch lives only two homes away from the crime scene and had not left there since the Sept. 25 incident. The East Orange resident’s barrage of bullets wounded five people; but Moore, who was shot in the head, was the only fatality.
According to the prosecutor’s office, police are also searching for a second suspect, Marcus Bascus, 19.