An Indianapolis man was arrested for murder after police say he shot and killed an 18 year old Saturday in downtown Franklin in what police believe was a drug deal gone bad.
Emilio Luis Garcia, 20, was arrested and charged with murder and robbery, Level 1 and 2 felonies. He is suspected of being the shooter, said Kirby Cochran, Franklin police chief.
Police also arrested Roger Lewis Miller, 21, of Indianapolis, for assisting a criminal, a misdemeanor. He is believed to be the driver of the vehicle used in the shooting. The vehicle is registered to a relative of Miller, Cochran said.
Garcia could face additional charges, Cochran said Sunday evening. The Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office will decide what, if any, charges to file.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Garcia, 4761 Glastonbury Drive, Indianapolis, is held without bond. Miller was released on $250 bond.
At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Franklin police were dispatched to a report of several shots fired in an alley in the 100 block of Hurricane Street, near the Boys and Girls Club of Franklin, according to dispatch records.
Police found the victim, who Franklin police have not yet identified, dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
An autopsy was performed Monday afternoon. The Johnson County Coroner did not respond to requests for identification and manner of death. The coroner has 2 weeks from the date of the autopsy to release those details, according to state law.
Police believe a 9MM gun was used, and at least four shots were fired in the alley behind the boys and girls club, Cochran said. Cochran would not comment on whether the gun used in the crime has been located.
Immediately after the shooting, investigators pulled camera footage from various homes and businesses in the area, and talked to about 20 people who were in the area at the time of the crime. They identified a 2013 Dodge Dart with a large, noticeable dent in the driver’s side door. It was seen on multiple surveillance cameras between 6 and 7 p.m. Saturday in the area where the shooting occurred.
Detectives worked tirelessly around the clock until an arrest was made, Cochran said. Suspects were arrested about 29 hours after the shooting.
By Sunday evening, police had located the car in question. By 11:30 p.m., both suspects were in custody, well within the 48-hour window law enforcement aims to arrest suspects in, he said.
“The biggest thing was good investigative work by the detectives working the case,” Cochran said.
Photos of the car captured from surveillance videos were shared thousands of times on social media, and police received countless tips, he said. The tip that led them to Garcia was out of Indianapolis.
“If there’s a good testament to community members seeing something and saying something, this is it,” Cochran said.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and Johnson County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the arrests. Both men are believed to be Indianapolis residents, he said.
Franklin police dive teams searched Youngs Creek on Sunday for additional evidence, but none was found, Cochran said Monday.
Cochran suspects the investigation will continue for months as they look at other suspects who many have been involved in the crime, he said.
The last shooting death in Johnson County was nearly a year ago, when a 19-year-old Greenwood man was found dead outside his apartment near State Road 135 and Smith Valley Road.
The last shooting death in Franklin was in February 2014 when Andrew Parish, 21, killed two people and himself after a heated argument with his ex-girlfriend at a home in the Heritage subdivision, according to newspaper archives.
Four people were shot, but his ex-girlfriend wasn’t one of them. Her mother and a neighbor were wounded; her roommate, Sara Davidson, was killed, and a neighbor who had come to help, Ernest E. Jasper, died hours later at an Indianapolis hospital from gunshot wounds, according to newspaper archives. Less than an hour after the shooting, Parish killed himself in front of police at a farm about 4 miles away from where the incident occurred, archives said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Got a tip? ” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the non-emergency number at 317-346-6336, or tip line at 317-346-1100.
[sc:pullout-text-end]
