In the winter of 2010, the life of 24-year-old Serge T. Mulongo, a Black male, was cut short in a fatal shooting in Portland, Maine. On the night of February 10, Mulongo was leaving his Parkside apartment building when he was shot six times in the entryway. The tragic event was the culmination of a day filled with conflict between Mulongo and his roommate and once-close friend, Daudoit Butsitsi.
The two men, whose families both immigrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo, had engaged in a physical altercation earlier that day inside their shared apartment. The dispute later spilled onto the street, where Mulongo punched Butsitsi through the open window of a car.
The conflict reached its deadly conclusion when Butsitsi, armed with a. 45-caliber handgun, ambushed Mulongo. The prosecution in the subsequent trial argued that Butsitsi had planned the shooting as an act of retaliation for the earlier disrespect shown by Mulongo. The defense, however, maintained that Butsitsi had brought the gun for protection while he was retrieving his belongings from the apartment, fearing his roommate's violent nature. Butsitsi testified that he fired his weapon because he believed he saw a gun in Mulongo's hand, though no weapon was found on Mulongo's body, only a glass pipe.
Following the shooting, an investigation led to the arrest of two individuals. The shooter, 25-year-old Daudoit Butsitsi, was arrested on February 12, 2010. The getaway driver, 21-year-old Moses Okot, whose family was from Sudan, was arrested a few days later after voluntarily going to the police headquarters for an interview. Okot was accused of providing Butsitsi with latex gloves that were used during the crime.
In July 2011, a jury found Daudoit Butsitsi guilty of the murder of Serge Mulongo. He was later sentenced to 38 years in prison. Moses Okot, the driver of the getaway car, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of felony murder. In exchange for his plea, a more serious murder charge was dropped, and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison with all but three years suspended.
