An 18-year-old man is jailed on charges that he fired a handgun into a crowd during Little 500 revelry on Kirkwood Avenue in Bloomington on April 26, injuring two women with bullet fragments.
Lewis James May, of Bloomington, was charged by the prosecutor May 6 with two counts of battery by means of a deadly weapon, criminal recklessness and pointing firearm.
He was arrested and booked into the Monroe County Jail at 5:41 p.m. May 5 after being taken into custody at Taco Bell in downtown Bloomington, where he was employed.
Police reported finding a plush shark-shaped backpack and a Taurus 9mm handgun, both visible in video images from the incident, when they searched his home.
The prosecutor’s charging document says that during post-Little 500 partying on Kirkwood Avenue near the intersection with Dunn Street after midnight April 26, May “did recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally perform an act that created a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person by shooting a firearm into a place where people are likely to be present.”
Police said the ruckus started with a fight between women outside Five Guys. A 20-year-old Indiana University student involved in the fight with several women she didn’t know said it started after someone threw water on her.
Two shooting incidents
A May 6 news release from Bloomington Police said the investigation has revealed there were two separate shooting incidents in close proximity around 12: 25 a.m. The one in which May was allegedly involved and another in front of Chipotle on the same street.
“It is not known if the two shootings are connected, but both are believed to have happened within a very short time period. The shooting that occurred in front of Chipotle is believed to have injured at least three females.”
One was shot in the chest and hospitalized.
Anyone with video or information is asked to contact BPD Detective Chris Scott at 812-339-4477.
Video images from the Five Guys scene released by police showed a man waving a handgun and firing a bullet into the sidewalk.
Within an hour of the video’s April 30 release, multiple callers identified the man as May, the news release said.
“One of the initial tips received included a photograph of May working at Taco Bell on April 29, 2026, in which he was wearing the same necklace observed in the Kirkwood Avenue video,” the detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit. “I also spoke with several individuals who work with May at Taco Bell, all of whom identified him as the individual in the video.”
Police eventually located May at his residence and saw him leave in a vehicle at 5:15 p.m. They followed him to Taco Bell and took him into custody as he got out of the car.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington man, 18, faces four felonies in Little 500 shooting
Reporting by Laura Lane, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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