Police: Gang member says he killed the wrong man
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) Police have arrested two people in connection with the Sep. 20, 2016 killing of a Fort Wayne man. Police believe the victim was not the intended target based on an interview with the murder suspect.
Robert J. Moore, 55, was found shot to death just after 11 p.m. on the front porch of a home located at 4131 Avondale Drive. According to an affidavit for probable cause filed on Thursday in Allen County, Moore’s sister told police she had been sitting on her porch when she heard shots ring out to the north about three or four houses down. She saw numerous flashes, but did not see who was firing the shots. The next thing she knew, her brother was lying on the floor of her porch.
A subsequent investigation by the Fort Wayne Police Department Gang Unit into Moore’s shooting and another shooting that took place the same day, officers conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle occupied by four people on Sep. 22. A handgun magazine found on one of the occupants matched a 9mm handgun found in the car. Ballistics tests done on the gun showed a match with shell casings found where Moore had been shot.
Kahmarri Spencer, 18, the person who had been in possession of the magazine, was interviewed on Wednesday and according to the affidavit for probable cause, he told police he and three others had seen Moore and some other people on the front porch of the Avondale Drive home on the night of the shooting. Spencer told police the group believed the the people on the porch were rival gang members so they pulled into an alley where he and another person got out and fired numerous shots at the people on the porch. In the affidavit, Spencer told police that shortly after the shooting they learned the person who was killed was not their intended target.
Spencer and Trevon Sullivan, 21, were both subsequently arrested for the crime. Spencer faces a charge of murder, while Sullivan faces a charge of aiding in murder. Both were being held in the Allen County Jail as of Thursday morning.