LR police seek man in slaying of brother

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Before fleeing the apartment where his brother lay wounded after a shooting early Tuesday, a Little Rock man asked his girlfriend to call for help, police officials said.

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As of Tuesday afternoon, police had not found Fred Mosby Jr., 35, who is now wanted in the slaying of his younger brother, Keith Mosby, 33, who was pronounced dead about 2:31 a.m. at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock.

Department officials did not say whether they had an arrest warrant for Fred Mosby nor did they return calls seeking more information about the shooting that resulted in the second homicide this month and the 24th killing in Little Rock this year.

The victim's wife, Rhonda Mosby, said she was with her husband at their 1912 Green Mountain Drive apartment about 1:49 a.m. when Keith Mosby told her to lie down and that he was going to step outside and smoke an unspecified narcotic, according to a police report.

When her husband returned, he "was shaking and pulled out a blue pocket knife," police reports said. Rhonda Mosby said she became frightened and ran out of the apartment and "hid in the bushes," the report said.

She was outside when she heard the gunshot and then saw her brother-in-law and his girlfriend run from the apartment.

Fred Mosby's girlfriend, Penny Wittenberg, lived at the apartment with the others and told officers she and Fred Mosby were getting ready for bed and brushing their teeth when they saw Keith Mosby return to the apartment.

According to Wittenberg, she was already lying down when Keith Mosby pulled out the knife and "came at [Fred Mosby] as if he was going to cut him," reports said.

Wittenberg said her boyfriend pulled out a pistol and shot his brother in the stomach and then the couple fled from the apartment "in shock," reports said.

Fred Mosby then told Wittenberg to "call the police and make sure his brother was OK," before he took off on foot in an unknown direction.

Wittenberg told officers she didn't know where her boyfriend would go.

In all, there were seven people in the apartment at the time of the shooting, including two children, but everyone else was asleep and did not witness the confrontation, police said.

Of the 24 killings in Little Rock this year, at least five were related to domestic conflicts, according to department records.

At this point last year, there were only 11 homicides recorded in Little Rock. By the end of the year, the city tallied 36 killings.

Metro on 05/07/2014