Court records: Prior shooting, disagreement preceded 19-year-old's shooting death
For at least 10 minutes, Alton Ray Kerney was followed by the man who shot and killed him in early August, court documents allege.
The 19-year-old died from multiple gunshot wounds around 6 p.m. on the west side of Indianapolis on Aug. 2. He was found in the street by responding officers in the 1000 block of North Rochester Avenue, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Nine days after the shooting, 20-year-old Bryant Washington was arrested and is now facing a preliminary charge of murder in Kerney’s death.
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Police found eight fired cartridge casings near Kerney’s body. A surveillance camera on a local business that captured the entirety of the shooting.
Video from other businesses in the area showed Washington and a shirtless man following Kerney before the gunfire, according to a probable cause affidavit for Washington’s arrest.
Detectives identified the man Washington was with using a tattoo in the middle of his chest. A few days after the shooting, police located the man, who initially said he had not seen Kerney or the shooting.
The man eventually told detectives there were issued between Washington and Kerney. In a photo array, the man identified Washington as the shooter who killed Kerney, according to the affidavit.
Police found that Washington looked similar to the shooter in the surveillance video. They also found a police report from December in which Kerney was listed as Washington’s roommate.
Washington was located at a home on the northwest side of Indianapolis on Aug. 11. He initially told police he was playing basketball with friends, then split off from the group on the day of the shooting, the affidavit reads.
He then told detectives about issues between himself and Kerney.
“Ray (Kerney) felt like I set him up,” Washington told police, according to the probable cause affidavit. “He felt like I set him up because one of our friends shot a shot at him.”
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Washington said the disagreement with Kerney began a few days before Kerney was killed. After the interview with detectives, Washington was arrested and taken to the Marion County Adult Detention Center, according to the affidavit.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s office will make a final charging decision in the case. An attorney for Washington was not yet listed in online court records at the time of publication.
Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis crime: Man, 20, arrested in fatal west side shooting
