A phone, firearms and a ride from a stranger: Details revealed in Lawrence triple homicide
A pair of firearms, a red iPhone and a ride from a stranger are among the clues that helped investigators make an arrest in connection with Friday's triple homicide in Lawrence.
Court documents released Thursday reveal the timeline leading to the Monday arrest of 24-year-old Malik Shaw. He has been charged with three counts of murder in the killings of Aaliyah Wortman, 19, of Marion, Londyn Coleman, 19, of Warsaw, and Spencer Lawson, 27, of Indianapolis.
After his arrest, Shaw requested an attorney. His side of events was not detailed in the probable cause affidavit.
Officers responded to shots fired reports in the 4400 block of Duxbury Lane about 7:20 p.m. Friday at an apartment complex near East 46th Street and North Post Road.
Wortman, Coleman and Lawson were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical services. The Marion County Coroner’s Office has ruled all three deaths homicides from multiple gunshot wounds.
Shaw is one of two people police suspect pulled the triggers, according to the probable cause affidavit. Investigators are searching for the second suspect, but Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears said they have leads they're investigating.
He also said investigators believed Shaw and Lawson knew each other based on social media accounts and exchanges. The shooting was not random, he said, but provided no other details about a possible motive.
'Freeze and lay down'
A maintenance man for the apartment complex was napping Friday evening when "he heard a sound he thought was a car backfiring," according to a probable cause affidavit for Shaw's arrest.
When the maintenance man realized the noise wasn't from a car, he told detectives he looked outside his window and saw someone running and shooting at Lawson who collapsed facedown between two vehicles in the parking lot.
The maintenance man pulled his firearm and began chasing the masked men who tried to flee in a Chevrolet sedan but quickly abandoned the vehicle after driving into the grass. He said he fired his weapon about four times and believes he may have hit one of the suspects, the affidavit states. His firearm was also taken into evidence.
After the men ran between a house and a garage north of East 45th Street the maintenance man returned to the parking lot where he found Lawson and Wortman fatally wounded outside of a vehicle and Coleman partially inside the vehicle.
He described the man who shot Lawson as wearing a black hoodie and black jeans. The other suspect was wearing a black jacket and black cargo pants.
A resident of the complex also tried to detain one of the men by pointing his rifle and telling him "to freeze and lay down," the affidavit reads. When the resident took out his phone to call 911, the man ran eastbound.
A pair of firearms in the gravel
On Saturday, police received a call from a resident on East 46th Street who made a surprising discovery. The man was moving vehicles to load lawn equipment when he found two firearms in the gravel.
Investigators recovered a Glock 20 Gen. 4 10mm and a Glock 19 9mm with a 50-round drum magazine, according to the affidavit.
A red iPhone
Phones found at the scene helped officers identify Wortman, Coleman and Lawson.
But a red iPhone found in the center console of a vehicle the men tried to use to flee would give police a lead on at least one possible shooter. The phone was analyzed and investigators said they found photos of Shaw on the device, which matched images seen on security footage of the suspects and the photo on his government-issued ID.
Officers also found a selfie video on the device from March, in which Shaw was shown wearing a sweatshirt similar to what one of the suspects was wearing, according to the affidavit.
Another photo found on the red phone from the day of the shooting showed Spencer Lawson. The photo’s timestamp was just after 6:30 p.m. Friday, less than an hour before the shooting.
On Sunday, detectives found a black zip-up hooded sweatshirt they recognized from Shaw’s phone and a black facemask near the crime scene, the affidavit states.
A ride from a stranger
After the shooting, a man police believe was Shaw ran up to a stranger in a bar parking lot less than half a mile from the apartment complex and asked for a ride. Shaw, who was breathing heavily and had scratches around his neck and arms, said he would pay the man $200 cash.
He'd been in a fight with his girlfriend, Shaw explained to the driver, and needed to get home, according to the affidavit.
As the pair pulled out onto East 46th Street, the driver noticed the flashing lights of a police car at the intersection with North Post Road. He asked his passenger if the police were after him.
Shaw said no and that "he did not know what was going on," the driver told police in the affidavit.
The man who gave Shaw a ride told detectives he drove him to an apartment complex close to Carla Drive, near the intersection of East 25th Street and North Post Road. Security footage from the bar captured the interaction, but police noted the man in the video was wearing different clothes than what earlier witnesses described.
Officers also received the security footage from a nearby treatment center. In the video, police saw one man climb over a fence and another man, dressed in all black, go behind a building before reemerging wearing a white tank top and black shorts. This outfit matched the video from the bar, the affidavit said.
Making the arrest
Officers observed Shaw on Monday and Indianapolis SWAT arrested him at the intersection of Routiers Avenue and Boehning Street. When he was in custody, detectives said they “observed a tattoo consistent with the suspect” captured on the treatment center security footage, the affidavit reads.
The residence near Carla Drive was searched by officers. Inside a bedroom, they found “black Nike athletic shorts with a swoosh identical” to both the bar and treatment center security footage, according to court docs.
Marion County prosecutor credits community cooperation for arrest
Mears said what aided the most in making an arrest in connection with the shooting were the testimonies and observations of people in the community.
"There's a lot we can follow up on to corroborate, but we need somebody to point us in the right direction," Mears said.
The fact both witnesses were armed bystanders also is becoming more common, he said.
"It's one of the things that we're seeing in these cases, is that people who are witnesses or associated with these cases, most of the parties are armed," Mears said. "It certainly speaks to the prevalence of firearms that we have in our community."
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Court docs reveal the events before and after Lawrence triple homicide
