IND: Suspect in 1 of 11 killings surrenders

[triflin]

A remorseful mom walked her teenage son into police headquarters over the weekend, ending the search for a suspect in one of a slew of Indianapolis shootings that have left at least 11 people dead.

Weekend shootings

A series of weekend shootings that prompted a blitz of police patrols killed six people:

• Justin Miller, 20, 5800 block of Pocono Mesa, South Drive, died of a gunshot wound at about 9:20 p.m. Saturday after an altercation at a Northwestside gas station.

• Antonio Jones, 23, 8700 block of Rue Riviera, and Richard Taylor, 18, 4200 block of Whitfield Street, were gunned down about 3:30 a.m. Saturday as they sat in a car at a Marathon gas station at Ninth and Delaware streets. A suspect, Cortez Cunningham, was being sought in connection with the gunfire, which also wounded two men.

• Maurice White, 26, 7400 block of Carnation Lane, was found shot to death in a car in an alley next to the Vault, a Downtown nightclub on E. Market Street at 3:21 a.m. Saturday. Police want to question Corey Andrews, 21, 7800 block of Red Mill Drive. They suspect that White, a former murder suspect, might have been killed in an act of revenge following his recent acquittal at trial.

• Jack Berry, 16, 3700 block of N. Gale Street, was shot at about 1:40 a.m. Saturday in what police say was a possible case of mistaken identity. Reginald Bell, 19, is a suspect in the case and surrendered to police.

• Gregory Bryant, 44, 700 block of Fletcher Avenue, was found dead in the backyard of his home about 10 p.m. Friday. Police have no suspects.

Prior to the weekend shootings police were investigating five additional killings that occurred last Wednesday and Thursday.

Have a tip?

Anyone with information can call (317) 262-TIPS, IPD at (317) 327-3475 or the Marion County Sheriff's Department at (317) 231-8711.

Reginald Bell, 19, faces preliminary charges of murder and attempted murder in a shooting early Saturday that left 16-year-old Jack Berry dead and another teen critically injured in what police say might have been a case of mistaken identity.
"If he was wanted as a suspect in the murder, it was just the right thing to do," said the suspect's mother, Larkette Bell. "I feel total devastation for the Berry family."
Bell's surrender came as the Indianapolis Police and Marion County Sheriff's departments responded to a wave of shootings by adding officers to daily patrols and saturating troublesome areas of the city and county.
From Wednesday through late Saturday, at least 11 homicides occurred in Indianapolis, with five of those taking place over the weekend in a span of 24 hours.
The spate of killings stunned Mayor Bart Peterson and other city leaders, who held an emergency meeting Saturday to address the city's spiraling violence.
Investigators are still searching for two men wanted for questioning in two of the other shootings. They also are trying to identify suspects in four others.
"Every day, we're . . . trying to figure out a plan for a particular night or a particular area," sheriff's Col. John Layton said.
Police said Bell, the suspect in custody, got in a fight with a man at the Underground, an Eastside under-21 club. He later left the club to look for the person and confronted and shot Berry and Billy Isaac Jr., 18, neither of whom were in the fight, early Saturday in the 3500 block of Station Street, police said.
Larkette Bell said Sunday that her son denied having anything to do with the shooting. Information she got from detectives makes her think he's involved, however.
"You know your kids, and I know my son," she said. "And that's all I'm going to say."
Berry died in the shootings, and Isaac was wounded. He remained in critical condition Sunday in Methodist Hospital.
"I know they don't want to talk to me," Larkette Bell said of the victim's family. "But we are a God-fearing family, and right is right and wrong is wrong no matter who it is.
"I'm just so sorry. I'm crushed for that family more than my own."
The emergency meeting that Peterson and local law enforcement attended Saturday in response to that and five other fatal weekend shootings led to calls for more police on patrol.
IPD's middle and late shifts, about 120 officers, will work an extra two hours a day. The Sheriff's Department assigned 18 detectives to road patrol and offered overtime pay for deputies willing to work extra hours.
"The sheriff has made it clear that he wants deputies out on the road," said Capt. Brian Mahone, the department's spokesman.
Mahone said there will be a doubling of deputies in parts of the county and a doubling-up to create "two-man cars" to save time at a crime scene.
With no need to wait for a backup deputy, he said, patrolling officers will be able to respond more quickly to criminal activity and pursue suspects.
The last of the weekend homicides took place in a Sheriff's Department patrol district. Investigators on Sunday identified the victim as Justin Miller, 20, 5800 block of Pocono Mesa, South Drive. He was shot and killed about 9:20 p.m. Saturday near 56th Street and Georgetown Road, shortly after a fight at a Northwestside gas station.
Two other men with Miller suffered gunshot wounds and were being treated in area hospitals.
"From what we understand, someone just came up on foot and shot into the vehicle," Mahone said.
The attack demonstrated how difficult it is to prevent killings, regardless of the number of police on patrol.
"We had brass for both departments on the street as well as officers everywhere, and we still had a shooting in the middle of the road," said Layton, who was among the city and county officers who converged on the scene of the Northwestside shooting.
Although IPD Deputy Chief Tim Foley said the show of force is bound to curtail or disrupt some crimes, he described the boost in patrols as largely a form of reassurance for a nervous public.
"With robberies, car thefts and a lot of that kind of stuff, police can predict where it's going to happen based on past performance," said Foley, commander of IPD's criminal investigations division.
"I don't know if you can do that with a homicide. There's no such thing as a homicide patrol."