Southport High School student was shot over 'beef' involving ex-girlfriend, docs indicate
A man accused of fatally shooting a Southport High School student outside an Indianapolis gas station Monday evening had an ongoing "beef" with the teen over a girlfriend, court records indicate.
Witnesses told police 22-year-old Tyrese Roberts pulled out a gun and shot Jack Sumner Jr., 17, after he and Sumner began to argue in the parking lot of a gas station in the 3600 block of South Keystone Avenue minutes before 8 p.m. There was "a beef and hard feelings" between the pair because Sumner used to date Roberts' girlfriend, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Roberts was booked into Marion County Jail on Tuesday, records show. He is facing a preliminary murder charge. Formal charges in the case had not yet been filed Wednesday morning.
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The affidavit filed in Roberts' arrest indicates he parked at the gas station shortly after Sumner and a group of relatives arrived. Sumner remained in the backseat of a Dodge SUV as a man police identify as Sumner's brother went into the store with his wife. Roberts also entered the store but did not interact with the couple, police said.
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Sumner soon got out of the back seat of the SUV and began arguing with Roberts near the back of the car, witnesses told investigators, and Roberts pulled out a gun.
"(A witness) tried to intervene and Mr. Roberts pushed her away with his arm and shot Mr. Sumner twice," investigators wrote in the affidavit. Two young children, a 5- and 6-year-old, were in carseats in the SUV at the time of the shooting.
The man identified by police as Sumner's brother then walked out of the gas station, saw his brother had been shot and "saw Mr. Roberts ducking and pointing his weapon in his direction," according to the affidavit. The brother fired his own gun at Roberts, the man told investigators, as Roberts drove away in a Volkswagen Passat.
Surveillance footage from the gas station corroborated the witness accounts, police said.
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Police found a bullet hole in the Passat's trunk, investigators said, but no weapons were recovered from the car or the apartment where Roberts was arrested. A search of a nearby wooded area with a gun-sniffing K-9 was also unsuccessful.
In an interview with detectives, Roberts commented "it was self defense" and requested a lawyer.
No additional information about the shooting has been released.
Contact Lawrence Andrea at 317-775-4313 or landrea@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @lawrencegandrea.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Southport High School student killed: Shooting started after argument
