Stray bullet kills Pennsylvania man, 25, who was enjoying Thanksgiving dinner when neighbors broke into shootout as family members argued over liquor

 A man was shot and killed by a stray bullet while eating Thanksgiving dinner inside his home in the Philadelphia suburbs Thursday night.  

Edilberto Miguel Palaez Moctezuma, 25, was shot in the torso just before 9:30 p.m., Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said Friday. 

He was found unresponsive and flown to Penn Presbyterian hospital where he was pronounced dead, police reported.  

Kevon Clarke, 19, of Norristown, allegedly fired several shots in the area during a dispute with relatives over liquor that had gone missing from a gathering earlier in the day, officials said.  

Clarke is named in a warrant charging him with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, reckless endangerment and weapons offenses. He is still at large and considered armed and dangerous, police said.

+4

Kevon Clarke, 19, (pictured) is suspected of firing the bullet that fatally shot Edilberto Miguel Palaez Moctezuma, 25, while he was celebrating Thanksgiving in his own home

+4

Moctezuma was hit by the stray bullet in his home on Arch street in Norristown, Pennsylvania

No one in the Norristown home on Arch Street, where Moctezuma was celebrating Thanksgiving, was involved in the argument outside that apparently sparked the shooting, prosecutors said.

The 19-year-old and his girlfriend, Jacqueline Brown, along with two other individuals were allegedly asked to leave a party on Haws Avenue earlier in the day. 

Once the group left the party, Brown was texted by a cousin asking about alcohol that was discovered missing from the party. The cousins coordinated to have the alcohol handed over at Clarke's residence on Basin Street, police reported. 

Brown's cousin double-parked at the residence when she noticed Clarke 'brandishing a gun and quickly drove off,' the press release said. 

She claims to have heard multiple gun shots as she drove away when Clarke then called her shouting 'You trying to set me up, you could have got me (expletive) killed,' and then continued on threatened to 'bang up your crib,' which the cousin interpreted as a threat to shoot into her home, police reported. 

A stray bullet shot through a window at Moctezuma's home less than a block away. 

Neighbors told ABC 6 they heard at least a dozen shots fired on Thursday and noted that several cars were struck by bullets. 

'I was sitting in my home enjoying my TV and Thanksgiving night and I heard what I thought at first was fireworks, and lo and behold it was five shots. After that I heard another eight shots,' a neighbor told the outlet. 

An autopsy performed by Forensic Pathologist Dr. Hannah Kastenbaum with the Philadelphia Coroner's Office which ruled his death a homicide. 

Steele described the victim as 'an innocent man who wasn't safe even in the confines of his own home.'

'Mr. Palaez Moctezuma was murdered while eating Thanksgiving dinner inside his home, and to be clear, he and his family were not involved in the dispute,' he said in the release.

Police said that two different surveillance videos and an analysis of the bullet hole helped them determine that the bullet had came from Clarke´s location. They also hope to speak with two other men seen running from the scene.  

The DA's office did not elaborate but noted that Clarke is 'not even legally able to own a gun.'  

Montgomery County Detectives and Norristown Police Department announced a joint investigation on Friday. 

+4

Researchers found that gun violence increased in almost every state in America, with midwestern states like Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin suffering the largest increases

+4

While a vast majority of states did she sharp increase in violence, Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire and Wyoming all had less violence compared to their peers

Gun violence across the country spiked during the COVID pandemic and has continued to ravage the United States. 

Researchers from the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, in Hershey, found a 30 percent increase in gun-related injuries and deaths during the pandemic when compared to 2019.

Additionally, 49 of the 50 states saw a spike in gun violence with only Alaska recording a decrease during the first year of the pandemic. 

The research team believes stressors caused by the pandemic and the increase in firearm purchases caused the spike in violence that has struck the nation.

There may be other factors tied to the rise in violence, though.

Violent crime has escalated in a number of major U.S. cities, such as New York, Chicago and Minneapolis, since the start of the pandemic, with the murder rate nationwide reaching its highest point since the mid-1990s.

Some law enforcement officers also say a decrease in police presence following Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police protests has allowed to crime to rise. 

Shootings across America have not just been the result of gang activity with many being random acts of violence.