Alleged downtown shooter could face 100+ years in prison

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH/AP) - The teen accused of shooting nine of 10 people in downtown Indianapolis following an Indiana Black Expo event on July 17 is facing 14 criminal charges.

Shamus Patton, 17, was in Court 22 Monday morning where prosecutor Carl Brizzi read the 12 felony charges and two misdemeanors against him.

Court documents released Monday detail witness statements regarding the shooting and include new details on Patton's gang involvement as well as the gangs involved in the shooting.

Patton now faces more than 100 years in prison. In a probable cause affidavit, he is accused of 14 crimes that include criminal gang activity.

When the family of Shamus Patton showed up to see the 17-year-old's first appearance in adult court, the prosecutor showed up to personally throw the book at him and Patton's attorney asked the judge for a gag order.

"It's now time to bring this issue back to the courtroom," said attorney Eugene Hollander.

But the judge set a hearing for next month on that request.

Patton heads to the Marion County Jail to be held on $250,000 bond. Court documents say that 15 shell casings recovered from the site of two Black Expo shootings match cartridges found in Patton's possession.

A "not guilty" plea was entered on his behalf and after the hearing it was his mother who wanted to talk, first sending a message to the families of the nine teenagers wounded in the shootings.

"I apologize to the family," said Barbara Turentine, "and, you know, I'm sorry…but."

"What are you apologizing for?" asked 24 Hour News 8's Jim Shella.

"I understand how they must feel," she said. "their child being shot and what they're going through because I know how I felt when my son was shot and what I'm going through."

If Patton was retaliating for a prior shooting, it's evidence, Prosecutor Carl Brizzi says, of criminal gang activity. He says Patton belonged to a gang known at the Ratchet Boyz and was shooting at members of a gang known as the Grimmie Boyz.

"The defendant," said Brizzi, "as alleged in the probable cause affidavit is a know gang member and this incident at Expo was fueled by a feud between these two gangs, the Ratchet Boyz and the Grimmie Boyz, we think that's important information to get out."

In the probable cause affidavit, police say that Patton also belonged to a second gang, the Savage Boyz, and that both the Savage Boyz and the Ratchet Boyz are, "extremely violent and have been involved in violent crimes."

A conviction on the charge of criminal gang activity would add 20 years to a sentence for Shamus Patton.

A trial has been set for October.