'Your brother was murdered:' local man says his brother was killed at Miami Correctional Facility

BUNKER HILL, Ind. ---An autopsy will be held Tuesday on the body of Shawn Booker, a Fort Wayne man and inmate at Miami Correctional Facility, an Indiana prison located in Bunker Hill.

Booker’s brother, Arthur Booker, told The Probable Cause he got a call from the coroner Saturday morning and was surprised at the frankness on the other end of phone.

“Your brother was murdered,” the coroner told Booker who is next of kin.

Shawn Booker

Shawn, 51, sent to prison on an Allen County probation violation, was found in his cell Saturday morning, Booker was told. Online chatter indicates he was stabbed.

Shawn was in a locked one-inmate cell, Booker said, so there doesn’t appear to be a cell mate to blame for his death. The Probable Cause has asked the Indiana Department of Correction for details on Booker’s death.

“Everything’s on cameras,” Booker says, trying to reassure himself that a complete investigation will be done.

Shawn has had deep mental health issues for at least 20 years, his brother said. 

His brother’s mind changed when he “smoked some Spice. It altered him big time.” Spice is a synthetic form of marijuana often laced with other drugs and sprayed with chemicals like weed killer. 

As a result of smoking Spice, Shawn became a paranoid schizophrenic, but managed to keep the loyalty of his girlfriend who said he “never laid a hand on her.”

As his older brother - one of six boys - Booker was the one everyone called when Shawn had his episodes, he said. A couple of times the Fort Wayne Police Crisis Intervention Team was called out.

He also dealt with the Allen County Jail. When his brother was locked up, Booker said, he told jail personnel his brother was off his meds. He was assured that a nurse would check it out, but has no proof that ever happened, he added.

His brother’s mental health problems affected his ability to work. Even though he was on disability, he would get jobs - he was a dishwasher at one of the Hall’s restaurants here in town - but he couldn’t keep them because he’d have psychotic episodes.

Shawn was very protective of his kids and “tore up a gas station” once because he thought they were trying to kill him and his children.

For years, Booker took his brother to Parkview (Behavioral Health) to get him back on his meds every time he had a run-in with the law. He made sure he was receiving his medicine.

On Oct. 25, Booker said “he’d been exhibiting,” i.e. hadn’t been on his meds. He had been getting shots every month at Parkview Behavioral Health. 

His girlfriend called the FWPD non-emergency line, but the officers said they “didn’t see any reason in taking him,” Booker said. One other time, Shawn was yelling and the cops came out - a lot of them that time - but Shawn thought the police “were out to kill him.”

“They barged in and pushed him down,” Booker said. When Shawn pushed his girlfriend back, her arm was injured and he “caught a domestic,” i.e. a domestic battery charge.

His probation on felony 6 vehicular accident with injury was to end in November. Instead he was sent to the RDC (Reception Diagnostic Center) where inmates are processed before getting sent to one of Indiana’s prisons.

In February, Booker got a call from the Miami prison that his brother got stabbed. He was “in population” meaning in a block with other inmates.

Booker knew he was “acting out” because he mentally ill. He spoke to the chaplain who wrote down everything, to the warden and assistant warden. The result was Shawn was “locked down for 30 to 60 days,” which was accepted by Booker whose thought was “as long as he’s OK.”

“Then I get the call Saturday morning that he was murdered,” Booker said.”Your brother was murdered. He was locked in a cell by himself with limited access from anybody.”

Booker said it “sounds like the guards couldn’t handle him. He wasn’t on his medicine. He’s a paranoid schizophrenic, a bipolar person. He is livid. He is on 29 as far as stress level and psychosis. He is gone, cussing the guards and going off on them every chance he gets.”

A toxicology report could take 30 days to see if he had any of his prescribed medications in his system, Booker said.

Shawn is the second Fort Wayne inmate killed at Miami CF in less than six months. J. Trinidad Ramirez, Jr. was stabbed to death Nov. 26. 

A current inmate at Miami told The Probable Cause that Ramirez was pushed up against a glass window begging for mercy as blood gushed from his neck.

These days there are social media sites and people with loved ones or LOs who trade news, gossip and advice on prisons.

The conversations on one thread now have Booker believing that his brother may have been killed in the same cell as Ramirez. Another rumor is that he was stabbed during ‘rec i.e. recreation.

The Probable Cause has reached out to IDOC for details on Shawn’s death and statistics on the number of deaths at the Miami facility,also home to a 1,000 bed site for ICE detainment.

Shawn, who attended Elmhurst High School, left behind four adult kids besides Booker and his other brothers and Shawn’s girlfriend.

It’s also up to Booker to tell their mother, currently in the hospital on an age-related illness, that her son has been killed.