Shell casings and a gun in the trunk quickly lead cops to a teenage arrest

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---The turnaround on ballistics in Fort Wayne has reached a remarkable stage, worthy of a CSI episode on a major network.

Shell casings 50 feet from Monday night’s teen homicide victim, Eriyn White, 20,  were traced to the gun of the accused shooter, Josiyah Derrick not even two days later. 

Homicide detectives found the gun right where Derrick told them it was - in the trunk of a 2008 red Chevy Cobalt witnesses said they saw at the scene of the party, according to a probable cause affidavit written by homicide detective Brian Martin of the Fort Wayne Police Department.

The 17-year-old Derrick, who was apparently beefing over a girl, was arrested hours later and subsequently waived into adult court. 

Thursday, Derrick was formally charged with murder, but not attempted murder, a charge hanging out there. There was a second unidentified victim who may have been Derrick’s real target. The victim was very critically wounded and eventually transported to Indianapolis for treatment, court documents said.

Sgt. Gary Hensler, Gang & Violent Crime Unit, FWPD

Derrick told a friend with him that night “that he wished that he would have killed (redacted name) when he shot at him, but he missed,” court documents said

One of the shell casings matching Derrick’s gun was found in the parking lot about 30 feet away from the surviving victim, court documents said. 

Two other shell casings and a projectile came from an as-yet-unidentified firearm and are believed to have caused the second victim’s injuries.

A live round or unspent bullet found in the parking lot matched Derrick’s information that he had a malfunction and ejected a bullet.

Experts say when a gun is fired, a projectile is released, but the shell casings tend to drop where the gun is fired.

Other FWPD detectives contributed to the investigation. FWPD detective Ty Douglas used facial recognition technology to tie Derrick to his Facebook and Instagram accounts. Derrick’s tattoo “Lucina” appeared on a photo in one of the accounts and in footage from an arrest on Jan. 26.

Homicide detective Nicholas Lichtsinn unearthed Derrick’s Instagram video post made just two hours after the homicide with the message: “Stop saying I got shot gang. We do the shooting N——a. Stop playing crazy.” 

A minute before the post, he posted two fire emojis, court documents said.

Derrick claimed to homicide detective Brian Martin that he went to his vehicle, got his 9mm Smith & Wesson from the trunk of his car, fired it once into the air and put it back into the trunk.

Derrick told Martin that he’d gotten his gun “off the street.”

Such is the life of some teenagers now that guns are the norm. A group of teens have recently been prowling neighborhoods southwest and stealing guns out of cars, their activities caught on home surveillance cameras. Shockingly, people leave their vehicles open even after being warned, one resident said.

One of the guns was used in a shooting May 28 on Townsend Run, sending the teenaged victim to the hospital with a bullet to the leg.

That shooter was 17, according to the FWPD.

If it seems like the shooters are getting younger, you are right. 

Sgt. Gary Hensler, a 25-year veteran police officer with many years of experience in FWPD’s Gang Unit, said there are multiple contributing factors.

“Violent offenders are ‘cycling’ into being more youthful than in years past,” Hensler said. He’s seen annual homicides increase from the 20s into the 30s over that period of time.

There's been an expansion in population and the size of the city while access to firearms for young people has “greatly”increased, especially in higher quality, larger caliber weapons.”

Add to that, the “explosion in social media that has brought out an unprecedented access to desensitization to violence and led to lower morals and decency,” Hensler said.  

“Sizes, ages, make up and loyalties in our local street gangs has shifted” along with more ways to use technology for fraud-related enterprises and to purchase higher quality firearms.

“Twenty years ago, the primary ways of making illicit money for deviant youth were basically street level dealing marijuana and physical theft,” Hensler said. 

“As it has historically, criminal behavior and police response is continually changing and adapting, with the police reaction inherently a step behind the initial criminal action.  

'We will keep up the good fight.”