At a house party early Saturday morning in the 2400 block of Euclid Avenue, one person died and six people were injured in a shooting that possibly broke out after a confrontation between two individuals.
Daymarr Kennedy, 17, died 11:45 a.m. Monday at IU Ball Memorial Hospital, Muncie Police Department (MPD) Chief Winkle said and Delaware County Coroner Rick Howell confirmed. The family has been contacted and been informed of his death, Winkle said.
One suspect, VaShaun Harnett, 19, was taken into custody early Saturday and charged with two counts of attempted murder, according to a probable cause affidavit regarding the incident. Harnett is a Muncie resident, but not a Ball State student.
During the party a confrontation ensued between Harnett and Spelmon Allen, one of the victims who was critically injured, when Allen pointed a firearm at Harnett’s friend, Harnett stated in the affidavit.
“We’re still working on that … trying to see if that factored or not,” Winkle said. “We’re still not sure about that.”
When this happened, Harnett pushed Allen’s arm away, after which Allen pointed the firearm at him, Harnett said. Harnett then pulled out his 9 mm handgun and shot Allen “three times in the chest and/or stomach area,” Harnett said in the affidavit.
Harnett added that he thought someone else — possibly Allen — fired several shots inside the house after he had shot Allen, the affidavit states.
After exiting the house and walking around to the driveway, he saw Allen lying on the pavement with two people — Tyler Childers and Kennedy — “digging in Allen’s pants.” He told them to stop but Childers and Kennedy continued trying to get something out of Allen’s pants, Harnett said.
Harnett said he then shot several more shots at Childers and Kennedy, but was unaware of how many times he may have struck Childers and Kennedy.
According to the affidavit, Harnett said no one else fired any shots outside of the residence. He also said he did not see Childers, Kennedy or anyone else with a gun while outside the residence. He said neither Childers nor Kennedy made any threatening actions or comments toward him.
Harnett then called 911, placed his firearm at the back of a vehicle that was parked in the driveway and waited there until the police arrived. At that point, he was taken into custody, the affidavit states.
Childers, Kennedy and Allen were all found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and were taken to IU Ball Memorial Hospital.
Childers was later airlifted to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. The police spoke with him Sunday, Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkle said, but they have been unable to speak with Kennedy or Allen.
“Nothing pertinent that we didn’t already have as far as we can tell right now,” Winkle said regarding the interview with Childers.
Due to the severity of their condition, Kennedy and Allen were unable to be transported to Indianapolis as well, the affidavit states.
As of now Allen is still in critical condition, Winkle said. Childers is currently in stable condition and has already been interviewed by the police.
Of the other four injured, two were treated and released the same day. The other two held overnight. Winkle said he doesn’t know whether the other two are still at the hospital or not as of now.
One of the people who was released the same night is a Ball State student. Winkle said the student was grazed by a bullet in her leg and did not suffer an actual bullet wound.
Several people at the house party were underage, something Winkle said is not unusual for a house party near Ball State. He said people being underage at the house party is not something the police are concerned about at the moment regarding this incident.
“If someone is worried about that, we’d love to talk to them. We’re not even going to ask those questions. We’re just trying to find out what happened on this shooting,” Winkle said.
The MPD chief encourages anyone who saw anything, has any information, or didn’t get a chance to be talked to or interviewed to contact and speak with the police.
Contact Rohith Rao with comments at rprao@bsu.edu or on Twitter @RaoReports.
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