Indiana Self-Defense: I was probably gonna be dead said beating victim in fatal shooting :: 08/29/2021

INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD Homicide detectives have questioned and released a teenager in a fatal shooting overnight that may be found to be “possible defense of a third party individual.”

Shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday, a woman told FOX59 News that her 28-year-old nephew arrived at her home and began beating her in the 500 block of Eugene Street.

“My nephew was here and he was very upset because I wouldn’t let him come in and he beat me up and wouldn’t get off of me,” she said, “and my nephew came and shot at my other nephew.”

The woman said her older nephew had struggled with mental illness since he was a child.

“He was hospitalized for a couple days and then they just released him and he was good for a while but then he started back snapping the last two or three days.”

The woman said IMPD officers previously advised her that if they found him on her property, he could be arrested for trespassing.

“When you’re continuously calling the cops and continuously telling them, ‘This person has a mental issue, do something. I don’t want him to be hurt but I want you to help him. These people are needing help, they’re needing help.’ I think they should be mandated to have to take their medicine.”

Mayor Joe Hogsett has called for enhanced mental health services spending in the upcoming 2022 city budget.

Unfortunately, that help will not arrive soon enough for the woman and her teenage nephew or her alleged attacker on Eugene Street.

“He threw me to the ground and stomped on my face and stomped my head and punched me in my face,” she said, recalling what happened just before the teenager emerged from the house with a gun. “Then my nephew just started shooting. Then my other nephew was still hitting me and so then he got up and ran and went down the street and fell.”

Police arrived and separated the woman and her nephew to hear their stories.

The wounded man was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The teenager was questioned and released.

“He told them the truth,” said his aunt. “Everything. How scared he was, and nobody was here but just me and some kids.

“They’re devastated. This is a family that’s gonna be divided.

“He loved the both of us. He loved his cousin. He loved his auntie. He was stuck in a sticky situation and so he did what he thought was the right thing to do.”

“What happens if he doesn’t come out and help you?” I asked the woman.

“Then I was probably gonna be dead,” she said. “I probably was gonna be stomped in my head to death. This would be a whole other issue and you would be talking to my mother.”

Any final charging decision regarding the teenager’s actions rests with the Marion County Prosecutors Office.

https://fox59.com/news/indycrime/i-was-probably-gonna-be-dead-said-beating-victim-in-fatal-shooting/