Video placed Anthony Mohamed near the home minutes before smoke appeared and residents fled, police say.
NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. — Neighbor surveillance footage became a key part of an attempted homicide and arson case after police said a man was seen near a duplex shortly before fire trapped families inside.
The case against Anthony Mohamed, 37, of Pittsburgh, turns on a tight series of events before 8 a.m. March 29 at a brick duplex on McCargo Street. Authorities said Mohamed, identified as the stepbrother of resident Jeris Smith, intentionally set a fire that endangered 10 people and forced several residents to escape from a porch roof. He faces six counts of attempted criminal homicide and a group of arson, burglary, trespass, mischief and reckless endangerment charges. The charges remain allegations unless proven in court.
According to police accounts of the video, the first clear marker came at about 7:38 a.m., when a person later identified as Mohamed walked toward the McCargo Street side of the duplex. Investigators said the same person was then seen crossing the street with a gas can and moving toward one of the victims’ vehicles. Moments later, the person returned to the house. At 7:42 a.m., the video showed him walking away with two backpacks, police said. About eight minutes after that, he came back to the property without the bags. By 7:55 a.m., a smoke detector could be heard on the recording. Five seconds after that sound, authorities said, Mohamed ran away.
The next images described by investigators and witnesses were not quiet surveillance details, but a public emergency. Smoke and flames moved through the house quickly enough that residents on one side of the duplex could not use the stairs. New Kensington Fire Chief Ed Saliba said the fire on the first floor trapped people above it. “They could not descend the staircase to the first floor due to the heavy fire,” Saliba said. He said the father jumped from the roof first, the mother threw the children down to him, and the mother broke her leg when she jumped. The escape happened before the family could wait for a ladder or a safer route.
Jasmine Bell later gave a more personal account of the seconds on the porch roof. She said Smith jumped and told her to throw the children. Bell said she hesitated at the words, then realized there was no other way out. She picked up the children one by one, told them she loved them and tossed them down to Smith. In video described by local reports, Smith could be seen catching one of the children on the ground. Bell then jumped and landed badly, breaking bones in five places. She said afterward that she remembered only the need to go, not a clear thought process, as the home burned behind them.
The fire injured several people but killed no one. On the McCargo Street side, Smith, Bell, their three young children and Smith’s 18-year-old son survived. The son escaped from the basement through a side door. The children were treated for smoke inhalation, and Bell needed surgery and physical therapy after her fall. Three residents in the other half of the duplex escaped, and one woman was treated for smoke inhalation. The fire displaced two families from the corner of McCargo Street and Freeport Road. The McCargo Street side was described as completely gutted, with visible damage left after firefighters put out the blaze.
Police said the investigation did not rely only on what cameras showed outside. A Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal examined the scene and ruled the fire was intentionally set. Authorities said the fire began in the living room and was started with a direct flame device used to ignite combustible material inside the structure. That finding supported the arson charges filed after the fire. The district attorney’s office later said the fire “prompted rescues and residents jumping from a second floor to flee from flames.” Fire officials and witnesses said the first floor became too dangerous for people above it to move through.
The alleged motive described in court papers was tied to a family fight. Police said Mohamed and Smith had an altercation about a week before the fire, and that at least one of Smith’s sons also was involved. Investigators said text messages exchanged in the days after the fight showed Mohamed wanted to continue the confrontation. Authorities said Mohamed took a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus to New Kensington, arriving around 7:30 a.m., and left on another bus around 8:30 a.m. The bus timing put his travel near the video timeline that police used to identify him as the suspect.
After charges were filed, police and federal marshals searched for Mohamed. Reports first described him as wanted by the U.S. Marshals and the New Kensington Police Department. The Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office later said he was arrested May 22 in Allegheny County after nearly two months. He was held in the county jail following the arrest, and an online docket showed a preliminary arraignment scheduled for June 2. Prosecutors are expected to use the complaint, video timeline, fire marshal’s findings and witness accounts to support the charges at early hearings, where a judge reviews whether the case can proceed.
For the people who survived, the legal case followed weeks of recovery and displacement. Nikki Bell, Jasmine Bell’s mother, said Jasmine had surgery and was doing well in physical therapy. She said the children did not have lingering complications from smoke inhalation. The family stayed in Pittsburgh after the fire and was preparing to move into its own place later in May. Bell’s account remained focused on the children and the split-second decision to throw them to safety. The criminal complaint, meanwhile, framed those same seconds as the result of an intentionally set fire that left residents no safe path through the house.
The available record leaves some issues for court, including how Mohamed will answer the charges and what additional evidence prosecutors may present. The public timeline now runs from the March 29 surveillance video to the May 22 arrest and the scheduled June 2 arraignment, with the families still recovering from the fire’s physical and financial damage.
Author note: Last updated June 20, 2026.