In the pre-dawn hours of September 15, 2021, gunshots broke the quiet on the 4000 block of 1st Street, Southeast in Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived to find a man suffering from gunshot wounds. He was identified as Paris Odemns, a 37-year-old Black man who was of no fixed address. Emergency crews rushed him to a local hospital, but he did not survive his injuries and was pronounced dead.
The investigation into the death of Paris Odemns continued for nearly
a year before police made an arrest in the case. Authorities took Malik Seltzer, then 27, into custody. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder while armed for his alleged involvement in the fatal shooting.
The case against Seltzer proceeded through the D.C. Superior Court system. On June 2, 2023, prosecutors offered him a plea agreement. The deal would have required Seltzer to plead guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter while armed. Seltzer rejected the offer and instead asked the court to set a date for his trial.
With the plea deal rejected, the judge scheduled a trial to begin in January 2024. The parties were expected to return to court in August 2023 for further proceedings. As of June 2023, the case was moving toward trial.
