EAST ORANGE N.J. – Two men were charged Monday in the weekend shooting at an off-campus house party that left a Seton Hall University student dead and four other people wounded. One was arrested, while the second remained at large.
Nicholas Welch was arrested Monday night at his home, on the same block as the house where the party was held, authorities said.
A second man, 19-year-old Marcus Bascus, was being sought. Both men were charged with murder, conspiracy and weapons offenses. Police believe Welch was the shooter and that Bascus provided him with the gun, either a .357- or .38-caliber weapon, based on shell casings found at the scene.
Welch was being held on $2 million bail and was expected to make an initial court appearance Tuesday or Wednesday. He “didn’t say much of anything” when he was arrested around 9 p.m., Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino said at a news conference.
Nineteen-year-old Seton Hall student Jessica Moore, an honors student from Disputanta, Va., who was majoring in psychology, died from her injuries hours after shooting early Saturday.
The injuries to the other four victims weren’t considered life-threatening. Two of the injured were 19-year-old women who go to Seton Hall, and one was a 25-year-old man who attends the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The other was a 20-year-old man from New York who is not a student.
Police said Welch tried to enter the party, was refused admittance and then returned moments later with a gun and started firing.
