Teenage 'Pink Socked Shooter' Captured, Wanted For Norristown Murder

NORRISTOWN, PA — A Norristown teen wanted for shooting and killing an innocent bystander during an incident last fall has been captured in Philadelphia, U.S. Marshals and local police announced Thursday.

Damien Wilson, 19, was tracked down following a lengthy investigation involving interviews, text data, cell phone records, and more. U.S. Marshals found him at a home on North Cecil Street in Philadelphia.

“The evidence indicates this was an attempted retaliatory killing that instead killed an innocent man. We are working to interrupt this cycle of violence in Norristown and elsewhere in Montgomery County to make our communities safe from these senseless killings by young men with guns,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement. “I also want to commend the U.S. Marshals, who worked diligently to find this murderer and safely get him off the streets.”

A reward has been posted for Wilson, who appeared in surveillance images wearing tall pink socks, since the shooting occurred on Oct. 7, 2022. It occurred at around 2 p.m. that day on the 800 block of Arch Street.

Wilson's intended target was Christopher Hall, with whom he had an "issue" related to a July shooting where Wilson was shot in the leg, police said.

Police also obtained audio and video calls between Wilson and a man named Deonte Kelly, who was recently arrested and charged with two killings in Pottstown. Kelly is Wilson's cousin.

Surveillance footage shows the victim, 47-year-old Norristown resident Anthony Vitelli, walking with another man in the parking lot of the Jefferson Court Apartments, police said.

A separate group of three people stand in the back of the lot. As the pair approach the sidewalk in the back of the lot that runs behind the apartment building, between Arch and Smith streets, shots are fired, according to authorities.

In the video, police said that a man appears from the area holding a gun, wearing a black hoodie and face mask, along with pink socks. He then fires several shots at the separate group of three, the group standing in the corner of the lot, before sprinting away toward Arch Street.

Vitelli was taken to Paoli Hospital where he was declared dead.

Wilson was also wanted for aggravated assault and strangulation of his ex-girlfriend in a Norristown residence in late August.