Court Docs: Defendant, 16, reacted to threatening messages, charged with attempted murder

'Big bad boss' or scared 16 year old?

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Early in the morning of June 2, 16-year-old Jamaris Hill was seen walking around inside his home on Lafayette Street and outside, around the home’s perimeter.

Video surveillance from inside his home in the 3400 block of Lafayette Street allegedly shows his hand on a gun, according to a probable cause affidavit written by homicide detective Robert Geiger.

Jamaris Hill, 16

Hill’s brother described Jamaris looking like a “big bad boss” when he went outside looking for the girl he’d been arguing with over his gun. 

The victim told Det. Brian Landwehr the gun belonged to her brother.

She’d written some threatening text messages, she admitted to the detective, and then at 3:38 a.m., she heaved a scooter at Hill’s residence although it didn’t break the window.

Something that could’ve been ignored, even though teenage boys don’t necessarily do that, ended in Jamaris firing five shots at her, one striking her.

Medical personnel reported that the victim required surgery because the projectile damaged the brachial artery, the artery “that supplies oxygen-rich blood to your upper arm, starting just below your shoulder... and extending all the way down to your elbow. It has several branches that send blood to your forearm and hands. When you check your blood pressure, the cuff squeezes the brachial artery to get a measurement,” according to an online definition from the Cleveland Clinic.

After being waived into adult court, Hill was charged with attempted murder, a Level 1 Felony that, if convicted, could mean a sentence between 20 and 40 years. His initial hearing was set for today.

Hill is also charged with Felony 6 criminal recklessness and misdemeanor dangerous possession of a firearm by a child.

In the affidavit, detectives say five gunshots can be heard three seconds after the thud of the scooter against the window.

It’s not clear whether police intelligence picked up the gunfire through CGIC, FWPD’s crime gun intelligence center, or from a neighbor making a 9-1-1- call.

After the shooting, Jamaris can be seen returning inside his home with a gun, court documents say. 

The young victim has fled, leaving a blood trail “through neighboring yards,” and dropping her cell phone Fort Wayne police recovered by following that trial.

She talked as soon as police found her and identified Jamaris Hill as the one who shot her.

Hill had already been detained outside his residence. In subsequent police interviews, he said he’d been at a friend’s house near Weisser Park, but refused to identify the home or the friend, the affidavit states.

The story would have been way muddier if the family’s home surveillance inside and out hadn’t been so extensive.

And if there’s a trial, the public may find out where the gun came from in the first place.