INDIANAPOLIS – Men “looking for a fight.”
Multiple gunshots.
Bloody towels and a trail of blood.
A Dutch commando shot in the head.
Court documents shed more light into a downtown Indianapolis shooting that killed 26-year-old Dutch soldier Simmie Poetsema and led to charges against 22-year-old Shamar Duncan.
Thursday morning, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears announced formal charges against Duncan, who faces a count of murder, two counts of attempted murder and a count of disorderly conduct. He was arrested Tuesday.
The shooting happened in the early morning hours of Saturday, Aug. 27, in the 100 block of South Meridian Street. Officers who arrived at the scene saw several shell casings, broken glass and bullet fragments. There was blood on the sidewalk in front of the Hampton Inn and a blood trail. Officers also found bloody towels and clothing.
Three people had been shot during an altercation, including Poetsema. Court documents reveal he was shot in the back of the head and investigators were aware early on that he wouldn’t survive.
The autopsy performed later determined Poetsema suffered severe damage to the brain from the single gunshot wound. His death was ruled a homicide.
Detectives interviewed multiple witnesses. The stories were strikingly similar: two groups of people—a larger one and another with three men—got into an argument that turned physical. One of the men from the smaller group ended up on the ground.
Not long after the encounter—perhaps 30 seconds to two minutes later—gunshots rang out. Witnesses saw a truck, usually described as a Ford F-150, leave the scene. The truck had some unique characteristics, including a toolbox, light bars and reflective strips.
Most witnesses believed the gunshots came from the truck.
One of the men in the group said his friend was shot in the thigh; he helped apply pressure to the wound until medics arrived.
Another witness told police he was with Poetsema and the other soldiers when they encountered three men while heading back to their hotel. They physically bumped into each other, resulting in a “pushing and pulling” match, although the soldiers were trying to move on because they “didn’t want a fight,” according to court documents.
One of the men “got hit and was knocked out with one punch,” according to the witness. After that, he saw the truck, heard gunshots and saw Poetsema bleeding on the ground in the aftermath. He went to help him and was “100% sure” the shots came from the truck.
Other witnesses provided similar accounts, saying two groups of individuals got into an argument, a man ended up on the ground and the other group moved on. Shortly after that, they heard gunshots and saw a pickup truck speed away near the Hampton Inn. Witnesses also provided police with similar descriptions of the men who’d gotten into the truck.
Another member of the soldiers’ group said they’d gone out to a bar and were walking back to the hotel when his one of his companions said there was “a situation.” He turned and found three men “just looking for a fight” and attempted to deescalate the situation. Still, the “guys just kept looking for a fight,” the witness said. One of his friends then knocked down one of the men.
Another witness described the man who’d gotten knocked down as the aggressor.
A witness who saw the confrontation from the IndyStar building said the three men in the smaller group “seemed to be very intoxicated.” In his recollection, the three “were looking for trouble,” according to court documents.
After a member of the group got knocked down, the witness heard one of the men say, “I’m going to go get a strap.” The men got into their truck, the witness said, did a U-turn at the IndyStar building and pulled in front of the Hampton Inn. The witness recalled hearing gunshots and seeing the truck take off toward Monument Circle and go right.
Police interviewed the wounded soldiers at the hospital. Both said they’d exchanged words with members of a smaller group, leading to a fight. Both believed the incident was over and started walking back to the hotel. Shortly after that, they heard gunshots; one was shot as he was running back toward the hotel. Both gave police descriptions of the men and recalled seeing a pickup truck.
Surveillance video viewed by police largely confirmed the various accounts. Investigators watched video of the truck making a U-turn on Meridian and going through other cameras placed downtown. They also viewed video of the moments leading up to the shooting; a pickup truck with a toolbox and light bars was clearly visible in the footage, according to court documents, and three men were seen running toward it.
A witness told police the men in the video had also tried to pick a fight with a different group an hour before the confrontation with the soldiers.
Police were able to identify the truck through the FLOCK license plate reading system. Officers located the truck, which had some of its key identification features removed, including the toolbox and light bars. Reflective strips had also been taken off, police said, but they’d left visible marks on the body.
Officers took the driver into custody and interviewed him. The man told police he “knew why he was there” and said he’d tell investigators “whatever [they] wanted to know.” According to his account, he and two others, including Duncan, had been in Broad Ripple before going downtown.
They parked and walked around. Eventually they brushed against another group and an argument led to a fight. He felt there were “like 14 people trying to jump them” and one of his companions ended up on the ground. He helped him up and then scrambled back to the truck. One of his friends said he’d forgotten his phone, so he stopped the truck. After that, he recalled hearing gunshots. He also told police he was drunk during the encounter.
The man identified Duncan as the shooter. He added that his friend ended up on the ground “like they should have,” alluding to his friend acting foolishly. He recalled Duncan “shooting out of the back of the truck” and then dropped his friends off at Duncan’s car at 16th and Dequincy.
He told police he’d “yelled at Shamar because he was mad that he shot” at the other group.
Duncan’s response?
“I just spazzed,” according to the man’s account.
The man provided police with phone numbers for the two individuals he was with on the night of the shooting, including Duncan.
Police eventually found the toolbox and light bars underneath a tarp during a later search.
The third member of Duncan’s group told police he and his friends had gotten into an altercation with “nine or ten” people. He tried to punch someone but ended up falling, according to his account. The fight lasted “maybe 30 seconds,” he said. He initially failed to mention anything about the shooting.
When pressed, he said he “guesses someone got shot.” He said he didn’t know if Duncan was the shooter and “wasn’t sure” why people were saying he and his friends were involved. He said they were “for sure” involved in the fight and was “not sure if shots were coming from the truck because he was very intoxicated.”
During an interview with police, Duncan said he and his friends had been involved in an “altercation with some dude, the one being talked about on the news.”
In his account, one that bore little resemblance to the many others provided by witnesses, Duncan claimed a lady “said something crazy to them” that made them stop. He told his friends it wasn’t worth it and said, “let’s go.”
A group of men then started to follow them, Duncan said, leading to a fight that lasted “3-5 minutes.” He also told investigators that the “group of guys was stomping on [his friend’s] head.” A couple guys ran toward them from the hotel, Duncan said, and they retreated to their truck.
He declined to tell police what happened next, according to court documents.
The prosecutor’s office said additional people could be charged in the case.
