Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

Second man arrested in 2020 Camden abduction and killing

Rashaan Setzer, 29, of Camden, has been charged with one count of first-degree felony murder in the death of Pedro Fernandez Jr., 30, of Pine Hill.

A Camden County, New Jersey, police vehicle. (Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
A Camden County, New Jersey, police vehicle. (Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

A second man has been arrested in the 2020 kidnapping and killing of a South Jersey man who had been reported missing prior to his body being found in a Camden alley last June.

Rashaan Setzer, 29, of Camden, has been charged with one count of first-degree felony murder in the death of Pedro Fernandez Jr., 30, of Pine Hill.

Setzer was arrested shortly after 8 a.m. Friday by the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force at a residence on the 100 block of Burroughs Mill Court in Cherry Hill, according to a statement by Acting Camden County Prosecutor Jill S. Mayer and Camden County Metro Police Chief Gabriel Rodriguez.

The arrest comes nearly one year to the day when police received a report of a possible kidnapping on the 1500 block of Pershing Street in Camden just after 11 p.m. on June 27. Witnesses told police they saw Fernandez being forced into a black pickup truck which then fled the scene.

Around 1 a.m. on June 28, police stopped a truck matching that description that was being driven by Setzer. Later that day, detectives found Fernandez’s body, shot multiple times, in an alley off the 400 block of Marlton Avenue in Camden, police said.

On June 29, Michael Branon, 33, of Camden, was charged with one count of first-degree felony murder in connection with Fernandez’s death. Further investigation and evidence analysis led detectives to determine Setzer was also responsible for Fernandez’s abduction and death, police said Friday.

He is being held at the Camden County Jail pending a pretrial detention hearing. Branon is also incarcerated there awaiting trial.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Detective Andy McNeil in the Prosecutor’s Office at 856-225-8407 or Camden County Police Detective Ed Gonzalez at 856-757-7400, or send an email to ccpotips@ccprosecutor.org.