Police arrested a 29-year-old man after surveillance footage connected him to two brutal assaults in downtown Indianapolis. Shortly after the man’s arrest, one person died from his injuries. The other remains in critical condition, according to the Indiana State Police.
On June 19, paramedics took a man in critical condition to a local hospital. Initially, it appeared that he was suffering from a medical issue, but doctors contacted police after they found injuries that suggested he’d been attacked. The man was not publicly identified at time of publication.
Indiana State Capitol Police recovered video that showed somebody assaulted the man just before 2 a.m. on June 19 in the first block of N. Senate Avenue, near the Indiana Government Center.
Investigators were working to identify the perpetrator when another attack happened. On June 26, at about 2:10 a.m., surveillance footage captured another assault in the same location. The attacker appeared to be the same suspect seen in the June 19 video, and state investigators shared his image with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Later that day, he was recognized when he asked to borrow an off-duty officer’s phone, according to court documents. An IMPD officer responded and detained the man on North New Jersey Street. He was wearing the same clothing seen on video in both attacks, and investigators wrote that there appeared to be blood on his socks.
In an interview, the suspect initially said that he’d found one of the men already beaten and had tried to check on him. He later said he attacked the man “out of frustration,” an investigator wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
The alleged attacker became homeless several months ago. He “indicated there was a level of emptiness and frustration because many of the homeless people he encountered would ask him for help, but he would not receive any help in return,” detectives wrote.
The accused attacker stomped on both men at least 15 times, according to a probable cause affidavit. Both were laying down or sleeping when the assaults began.
The man said that he “did not intend to murder them” and that the beatings were “too extreme.”
He was booked on two preliminary counts of attempted murder. IndyStar is not naming the man accused because he was not formally charged him at time of publication.
On June 28, the man who’d been attacked on June 19 died. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office will review amending charges, according to ISP.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Man arrested after video captures two brutal downtown Indy attacks
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
