INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Four people have been charged in connection with a quadruple homicide in Indianapolis earlier this month.
The Marion County Prosecutor's Office filed charges on Wednesday against Rodreice Anderson, 19, Cameron Banks, 19, Desmond Banks, 17 and Lasean Watkins, 19. All four are facing multiple counts of murder and robbery resulting in bodily injury.
“I want to applaud the quick action and thoughtful investigatory work of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, as well as the cooperation and collaboration of community members," Mayor Joe Hogsett said during the press conference where the arrests were announced on Wednesday. "Today would not be possible without the work of IMPD officers, dedicated to building relationships, creating community dialogue, and utilizing best practices in policing."
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to an apartment in the 4100 block of Shady Oak Drive just before 10:30 p.m. on February 5 after a neighbor noticed a back patio door was shattered and saw someone fleeing from the residence.
Arriving officers found four victims down inside the apartment: Marcel Wills, 20, Braxton Ford, 21, Kimari Hunt, 21, and Jalen Roberts, 19. The Marion County coroner determined all four of the victims died from multiple gunshot wounds.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the four suspects had planned to rob Roberts at his apartment on February 5. During the course of that robbery, Roberts, Hunt, Ford and Wills were all murdered.
When investigators arrived at the scene, they noted that the home appeared to have been ransacked with "drawers pulled out and falling from dressers." An empty black safe was also located in one of the open closets, open, with the key still on top. Two guns were also missing from the home.
According to the affidavit, a witness contacted detectives saying he had been at the home the night of the crime and that he had seen three people show up in hoodies. The suspect told detectives that "everyone at the apartment was shooting dice and one of the males kept coming and going from the residence while another 0f the males kept coming and going to the restroom as if he was trying to look around the house," the affidavit says.
That witness was able to give detectives a vehicle description, which they used to find a suspect vehicle from nearby surveillance video.
Probable cause documents state that seven cell phones were recovered from the home at the time of the crime.
Initial hearings for the all four defendants have been set for Feb. 20 at 1 p.m
"While nothing can bring back the four young people whose lives were cut much too short by senseless violence, these charges serve as a meaningful step toward delivering justice to the impacted families," Hogsett said.
This story was originally published by Katie Cox at WRTV.
