PORTLAND – A second man has been charged with murder and is being held without bail in the Feb. 10 shooting of Serge Mulongo in the Parkside neighborhood.

Moses Okot, 21, made his first appearance in Cumberland County Superior Court on Friday afternoon. Okot was arrested around 4 p.m. Thursday at Portland police headquarters after being interviewed by detectives.

Daudoit Butsitsi, 24, had already been charged in the slaying. Butsitsi was arrested Feb. 12 and made his first court appearance Tuesday. Both men were ordered held without bail until formal bail hearings can be arranged by their lawyers and state prosecutors.

According to a police affidavit, Butsitsi shot Mulongo multiple times with a .45-caliber handgun around 11:15 p.m. on Feb 10.

Mulongo, 24, was shot on a porch outside 218 Park Ave. as he left the apartment building. Okot allegedly provided Butsitsi with latex gloves used in the crime and was the getaway driver.

Butsitsi’s family immigrated to the United States from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Okot’s family came here in the early 1990s from Sudan. One of his brothers, David Okot, 26, was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on April 25, 2009.

Police officials said officers shot David Okot because he pointed a gun at them. The officers had arrived at 11 Weymouth St. to investigate a complaint of a man showing a weapon.

Relatives said the shooting was indicative of a grudge by police against the large Okot family. The Maine Attorney General’s Office ruled that the officers were legally justified in their use of deadly force.

According to a press release issued Friday by Capt. Ted Ross, Moses Okot voluntarily went to police headquarters on Thursday. He was interviewed and then arrested.

The key witness to the shooting — who has not been identified by police because of concerns for his safety — said he and two other men were at the Gulf Mart at 754 Congress St. around 10:45 p.m. on Feb. 10.

The witness told police that he saw Okot driving a Dodge Intrepid, which police later learned belonged to Daudoit Butsitsi. The witness said he talked to Okot, and mentioned that he and Serge Mulongo planned to go to the Old Port later that night.

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According to the police affidavit, surveillance cameras then recorded Okot as he walked into the Gulf Mart, bought beer and got a pair of latex gloves from the clerk.

The same witness who saw Okot at the Gulf Mart saw the shooting of Mulongo about 25 minutes later. The witness said he wrestled with the shooter and bit him after the fatal shots were fired.

The witness said he ran away and the shooter ran after him on Park Avenue. The shooter allegedly hid the gun under a bush and discarded the gloves. The witness said that he kept running and saw Moses Okot parked on Grant Street in Butsitsi’s car.

Detectives found a .45-caliber handgun under a bush and a pair of latex gloves in a nearby parking lot. Analysts at the Maine State Police crime lab found DNA consistent with Butsitsi on the gloves, as well as a mixture of DNA from multiple people, according to the affidavit. Police also found a bite mark on Butsitsi’s left shoulder.

In his interview with police, Okot said he got napkins at the Gulf Mart, not gloves. He also denied that he was driving the Dodge Intrepid on the night of the killing. Detectives took swabs from the inside of Okot’s cheek, so his DNA can be compared with DNA collected during the investigation.

 

 


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