NORTH VERNON — A Louisville man has been arrested in the shooting death of a young Country Squire Lakes resident who neighbors said was caught in the crossfire of a disagreement about a girl who wasn’t being “left alone.”
Stephon Moore, 30, Louisville, was arrested Tuesday in Louisville and accused of one count of murder in the death of Donavon Booker, 23, who lived in Country Squire Lakes, and two additional counts of attempted murder in the shooting incident, Jennings County Sheriff’s deputies said.
Witnesses said Booker was found shot to death in a driveway of a home on Squire Lakes Boulevard near the subdivision entrance at about 7 p.m. Monday.
Jennings County Sheriff Kenny Freeman said deputies were notified about a male being shot in his upper torso. First aid was given and Booker was transported to St. Vincent Jennings Hospital where he was later pronounced dead, investigators said.
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Jennings County Coroner Gene Rudicel said an autopsy for Booker is planned for 9 a.m. today in Jennings County.
Investigators from the sheriff’s department worked through Monday night along with assistance from the Indiana State Police to identify who was responsible for the shooting, according to the sheriff’s department.
Local investigators worked closely with Louisville Metro Police, who served a search warrant at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday in Louisville in regard to the murder, deputies said.
Three individuals were detained, one of them Moore, and a fourth person is being sought for questioning, deputies said. The identities of the other two people detained are not being released at this time, according to the sheriff’s department.
Keith Rutherford, who lives two houses down from where the shooting occurred, said he was eating pizza with his girlfriend inside their home Monday night at about 7 p.m. when he heard three gunshots, followed by a woman’s scream.
“There was three shots fired, and I told her to stay inside and lock the doors,” he said. He then went out and saw a silver Chrysler car zooming past his house, which then careened left toward the entrance to Country Squire Lakes, he said.
Rutherford then turned and saw a group of people standing outside, two doors down from his house and began walking toward them, he said.
There were two women and two men standing outside that house and the victim was on the ground in the driveway, Rutherford said.
“He had a gunshot wound right next to the heart,” Rutherford said of seeing Booker unresponsive on the ground.
Rutherford took off his shirt and pressed it on to the wound as he asked what he could do to help, and the individuals asked if he knew CPR. Although Rutherford told them he had not attempted to do CPR since learning it in high school, he asked one of the men to hold the shirt on the wound and began CPR as another person in the group was on the phone with 911.
Booker was not breathing and did not have a pulse as he attempted the CPR, Rutherford said.
Although Rutherford had met Booker when the two were in high school, with Rutherford attending Seymour and Booker at Jennings County, Rutherford said he did not initially recognize his friend when he tried to do CPR.
“I had a feeling he was gone,” Rutherford said of his efforts to revive the victim, which included several minutes of CPR before the ambulance arrived.
After the ambulance took Booker from the scene, Rutherford said he was told that there had been a disagreement about a girl “not being left alone,” and the shooter, believed to be one of the people in the silver car, went to the house where Donavon was standing outside. Rutherford said he saw three male figures in the car, and others at the scene told him there was also a woman in the car, he said.
“This person was not leaving a girl alone and then it turned into a big ordeal,” Rutherford said. “But it didn’t involve Donavon. He was just a bystander.”
Rutherford said the group told him the people in the car shot at Booker and two other males, but Booker was the only one hit. Rutherford said he was interviewed by police most of Monday night, he said.
“I didn’t even know the people when I went to help,” Rutherford said of his impulse to go to the shooting scene. “I just wanted to do what I could.”
Booker, who had attended Jennings County High School, had just started a job at Hilex Poly Co. in North Vernon in February according to his social media postings. Several witnesses said Booker has family in Columbus and Jennings County.
