An inmate at the Westmoreland County jail has been charged in connection to a 2023 murder in New Kensington.
Raijon Deqae Wilson, 30, of New Kensington is charged with homicide in the shooting death of Troy Vickers Jr.
On Oct. 19, 2023, Vickers was found shot in the head on his front porch along Kenneth Avenue, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. He died two days later in a Pittsburgh hospital.
Police said witnesses detailed months of disputes between Wilson and Vickers leading up to the shooting.
“There was known animosity between Vickers and Raijon Wilson,” the criminal complaint said.
Witnesses said the two argued at a Brackenridge bar and again outside Vickers’ home several months before the shooting, according to the complaint. Police also said the pair had a fight at the Family Dollar store in Tarentum the month before Vickers was shot.
Security camera footage from Kenneth Avenue captured multiple videos of a Jeep registered to Wilson driving near Vickers’ home the day of the shooting, according to the complaint.
Footage showed the car parked at an empty lot on Leishman Avenue around 10:47 a.m., police said.
It then showed a person leave the car, walk through the lot toward Kenneth Avenue and return to the car three minutes later, the complaint said.
A witness who was with Wilson the day of the shooting identified Wilson as the person in the videos, according to the complaint.
Audio surveillance from the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street captured two gunshots around 10:49 a.m., the complaint said.
Wilson faces a first-degree murder charge and two counts of prohibited gun possession. He also faces a misdemeanor charge for terroristic threats.
Wilson has a previous, unrelated conviction that banned him from having a gun, according to a press release from the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office.
In 2022, Vickers was charged with attempted homicide related to a shooting at the Sheldon Park housing development in Harrison, but the charges were dropped.
