A bullet is lodged in James Holder’s spine. His back is patched up, and every step the father of four takes, the brace he must now wear on his back makes it hard to breathe.
Holder just came from Eskenazi Hospital after five days there. His brother Edward Huspon remains in the hospital in critical condition. Both men were shot July 22 by Holder’s next-door neighbor.
“It was traumatizing,” Holder told IndyStar. “I’ve known him for a while, and he’s even done stuff for me, and I’ve done things for him. Like, we’ve helped each other as good neighbors are supposed to do.”
Holder was trying to de-escalate an argument between the man and his brother outside his near east side home just before the shooting.
The neighbor has never been arrested for any other violent offenses in the state of Indiana but is now formally charged with aggravated battery, posing a substantial risk of death and battery by means of a deadly weapon.
Neighbor’s mailbox is on the side of the house
Holder’s neighbor lives in a smaller home behind the house where Holder lives with his family. The neighbor’s mailbox is nailed to the side of the home near the bedroom where Holder and his girlfriend sleep.
Two months before the shooting Holder asked the man not to retrieve his mail late at night.
“It would be like 3 a.m., and he’d be coming near the window in the middle of the night,” Holder said. “I’m like, man, that’s kind of strange, can you not do that? He said he gets off work late, though, and I’m like alright, but you can imagine how uneasy that can make a person feel if we don’t know it’s you. He said he’d try to, but he gets off late.”
While Holder said he let it go at that point, Holder’s girlfriend told police that the mailbox remained an issue. She said the neighbor told the couple, “I will come to this mailbox whenever I want to come to this mailbox.”
According to court documents, she told police the neighbor never made a threat.
Holder said since then, he’d noticed times when the neighbor wouldn’t speak or wave at the couple when they saw one another, but he did not take it personally.
Shooting happened after neighbor stopped by mailbox
At 5:51 p.m., on July 22, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police were called about shooting outside a home in the 100 block of Randolph Street. Holder’s girlfriend, who was in the house with her four children: a 5-year-old, a 3-year-old, a 2-year-old, and a 3-month-old, called 911.
Officers arrived and found both Holder and Huspon. Medics found Holder in the entryway near the front door of his home, and Huspon near a fence near the neighbor’s property, according to court documents.
When officers went to the door of the neighbor accused of the shooting, court records say he came out and said, “I’m here, I’m the one that did it.”
Court records stated Holder was shot in his left flank and taken to the hospital in stable condition. His brother was shot in the right side of his neck, his right forearm, and right leg and has undergone multiple surgeries since the shooting.
While in the hospital, Holder told IMPD detective Shem Ragsdale that his brother was visiting him and sitting on the outside porch when he noticed the neighbor walking up to retrieve mail from the mailbox.
“My brother was like, ‘Well, how you doing?’ but the man didn’t say nothing and just mean mugged,” Holder said. “So then my brother was like, “Can you speak?” I was in the house, but I went outside when I heard him at the fence yelling at the guy, “It’s good manners.”
According to court documents, Holder said he told his brother about the mailbox and how it’s normal for the neighbor to come up and get his mail, but Huspon continued to argue with the neighbor about being rude and not speaking.
“I was trying to be a mediator,” Holder said. “I’m telling my brother that he doesn’t have to speak to you. I get what you’re saying, but yeah. Then I’m telling the neighbor that it doesn’t hurt to say something. That’s when he pulls out his gun and shoots my brother. I’m like, “What are you doing?” And he turned to shoot me. It all happened so fast.”
Holder said the neighbor went inside his home and Holder struggled to get to the front of his home to tell his girlfriend to call the police.
Another neighbor told police she heard someone say, “Get off my property,” and “Get away from me,” according to court documents. She said the neighbor who shot the men had never bothered her.
The camera in the back of the police car recorded a cell phone call the neighbor made on his way in for questioning. The neighbor told the person on the other side, “I got into it with the neighbors,” “they were going off,” “I thought they were going to do something,” and “I shot both of them.”
The incident has left Holder looking for a new home. The father started a GoFundMe after losing his job.
“Now, I want to move. I don’t want my kids to be around this, and I’m afraid it’s going to be more of a problem if he gets to bond out and come home,” Holder said.
IndyStar uses discretion in naming people accused of crimes, considering the severity of charges and available information, among other factors. Suspects may not be named if ongoing reporting of the associated court proceedings is not immediately planned.
Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Man who was “trying to be a mediator” is shot alongside brother by neighbor on eastside
Reporting by Jade Jackson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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