In the late afternoon of August 25, 2020, a dispute on Oak Street in Yonkers, New York, turned fatal for 24-year-old Chazz Leroy Mitchell. Mitchell, a male resident of Yonkers, was with a group of people when he was approached by another man. A brief physical altercation quickly escalated, culminating in the other man drawing a handgun and firing at least one shot, striking Mitchell in the abdomen. The shooter then fled the scene.
Mitchell was transported to Saint Joseph's Medical Center by a third party, but he was unresponsive and ultimately succumbed to his gunshot wound.
Investigators from the Yonkers Police Department determined that the shooting was not a random act, as Mitchell and his assailant were known to each other. A person of interest was soon identified, and the investigation focused on locating the suspect. The man wanted for the murder was identified as Jerome Wilson. For over a year and a half, law enforcement searched for Wilson, who had ties to several locations in New York, as well as North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The FBI even offered a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to his arrest.
The manhunt for Jerome Wilson came to an end in April 2022, when he was apprehended at a home in Charlotte, North Carolina. The arrest was the result of a collaborative effort between the Yonkers Police Department, the FBI's Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Wilson was then extradited back to New York to face charges for the death of Chazz Mitchell.
Initially indicted by a grand jury on charges including second-degree murder and manslaughter, Jerome Wilson, then 28, ultimately pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on May 30, 2023. On July 20, 2023, a judge sentenced him to 15 years in state prison. During his sentencing, Wilson expressed remorse and apologized to Mitchell's family, stating that he wished he had done more to de-escalate the conflict between them.
