FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – They came to Fort Wayne from Indianapolis only to be ambushed, thrown into a car and threatened at gunpoint to retrieve money from and ATM using their debit cards.
When they tried to fight back and escape the car and flee to the tree line of some nearby woods, the bullets began to fly.
Those are the details in newly released Allen Superior Court documents describing a south side shooting Thursday morning that left one man in critical condition and two others – another man and a juvenile described as an early teen – facing charges of attempted murder, armed robbery and criminal confinement.
Fort Wayne Police arrested 19-year-old Riley T. Irving and the juvenile hours after the shooting, which happened in the 1100 block Fayette Drive at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday.
According to court documents, two people – identified as “Victim 1” and “Victim 2” – came from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne.
The person identified as Victim 2 later told detectives he did not know why they came to Fort Wayne, that he only came with Victim 1 who was in contact with someone they were supposed to meet in the city.
The two ultimately ended up at a local apartment complex, where Victim 1 got out of the vehicle they drove while Victim 2 stayed inside.
Shortly thereafter, two males approached the vehicle and ordered Victim 2 out. They led him to a nearby first-floor apartment where Victim 2 saw Victim 1 on his knees. Inside the apartment were five other males, all with guns, according to court documents.
At some point, someone pistol-whipped Victim 1, court documents said. Victim 2 was then ordered to lay face down on the ground, he told investigators. The others in the apartment then began to go through the two victims’ pockets, court documents said.
The pair from Indianapolis were told if they moved, they would be killed, Victim 2 told investigators in court documents.
Victim 1 and Victim 2 were then ordered to leave the apartment at gunpoint and put into the backseat of a Toyota Camry, according to court documents. The driver of the car, later identified as Irving, had the letter “G” tattooed on his hand, Victim 2 later told investigators.
The person in the passenger seat was described by Victim 2 in court documents as Asian with curly hair and roughly 12 to 13 years old.
A male described as skinny, Hispanic and with glasses got in the backseat with the pair from Indianapolis, Victim 2 said in court documents.
Victim 2 told investigators Irving had a Glock handgun, the teen in the passenger seat was armed with a rifle-style firearm with a drum magazine and the skinny male with glasses in the backseat had another Glock handgun, court documents said.
Irving is accused of driving the car first to a local gas station, where he and those with him met up with another person and gave over one of the victim’s wallets. He’s then accused of driving to an ATM to get money from one of the victim’s debit card.
One of the victims was told to send money to a cash app, and then those in the car became angry and drove the two from Indianapolis to the area of Fayette Drive where the shooting occurred, Victim 2 told investigators in court documents.
Victim 2 told investigators Victim 1 began nudging his knee, meaning it was time to run, according to court documents.
That’s when Victim 1 began strangling Irving, court documents said, giving Victim 2 a chance to open the door, fall out of the car and sprint to some woods.
He later told investigators he heard gunshots behind him and heard Victim 1 screaming, according to court documents.
The two eventually met up and Victim 2 saw Victim 1 was suffering from a gunshot wound to his chest.
“Victim 1 told Victim 2 he was not going to make it and take care of his daughter,” an investigator wrote in court documents.
The man suffering from a gunshot wound was taken to a local hospital in critical condition. An update on his condition was not available Friday afternoon. His identity has yet to be released.
Detectives began combing through surveillance videos, finding the moment Irving drove the car to meet with someone at a local gas station and capturing Irving’s tattooed hand while he tried to get one of the victims to use a debit card at an ATM, court documents said.
They also identified Irving as the likely driver of the car through its license plate, according to court documents.
The Fort Wayne Police’s version of a SWAT Team served a warrant at an undisclosed location, where they arrested Irving and the teenager who had been riding next to him in the passenger seat of the car when the shooting happened.
At first, Irving told investigators he and the teen had given two people a ride from Autumn Ridge Apartments to get gas and money at an ATM and that they dropped them off at another apartment complex, according to court documents.
Then, he said in court documents one of the two men in the backseat had reached for his Glock handgun that was stuffed between the seat and console next to him, and that he fired at least two shots at that man while the other ran from the car.
Irving said in court documents the teenager in his passenger seat fired at least two shots during the shooting, as well.
During the interview, Irving also admitted to forcing one of the men to withdraw money from an ATM, which did not work, court documents said. He ditched the car in an alley after the shooting, which police found afterward.
The boy with Irving had no adult guardian or parent who could be reached, so was not interviewed at the time, court documents said.
Irving is officially facing preliminary counts of attempted murder, armed robbery causing serious bodily injury, attempted robbery and criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, according to court records.
He’s being held in Allen County Jail on $95,000 bond.
