News & Articles

Alec Hegge told investigators with the Hamilton County Metro ICAC Task Force that he “never hurt” a patient because there were too many safeguards in place. Hegge, 31, originally from Fort Wayne and a 2013 Snider High School graduate, was a registered behavior technician at Changing Lives Behavior Analysis Inc. in Anderson, according to a release posted July 24 on Facebook by the Fishers Police Department.

And there was security. But that night Cameron Starks, now 24, and two buddies knew security, who let them in with their weapons.  Shamon Little aka “Homer” was killed that night. Dr. Kent Harshbarger, a forensic pathologist said Little died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the probable cause.

Swedzinski, 67, died of a bullet wound to the head and another to his chest, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Detective Gabe Furnish with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department. Thursday, Michael Chavez Gustin, 22, was charged with murder, felony murder and burglary.

Folks in the 46845 zip code where new luxury homes abut farmland are jittery, wondering if the shooting death was random or personal. It looks as though it was the latter. "If it is any relief, there is no indication that the incident there, will lead to any others," Kenneth Litzenberg, public information officer for the Allen County Sheriff's Department, wrote Thursday in an email response.

The victim was 67 years old and lived far north in Allen County. His home in the 700 block of Hathaway Road is peaceful with large homes. Roger Marvin Swedzinski died Saturday morning around 9:30 a.m. of multiple gunshot wounds.He was at his home.

Surveillance video from a nearby business showed proof it was a hit and run accident, that the Saturn was traveling east on McKinnie, ran a red light at Lafayette and struck the northbound Chevrolet Silverado, according to a probable cause affidavit penned by Sgt. Matt Wilson, assigned to the Fort Wayne Police Department’s homicide, but a former fatal traffic crash detective.

Flowers appealed to Keirns to place him in the JCAP program, an in-jail recovery program that has had success, but Keirns said the jail was full and basically, it was time for the state to pick up some of Flowers’ incarceration costs.

It took three seconds to mortally stab the victim. And a short time later to arrest Draylon Marquise Crutch

Last Friday, the Fort Wayne Police Department went out to clean up downtown Fort Wayne. The operation from 4 p.m to 8 p.m. means it was still light outside when they arrested nine people,  including some aging prostitutes whose mugshots will not be published here, their sorry lives already exposed in local media.

Jamoni Burton, 19, who lived in the same apartment complex as his alleged victim, Kardenia Anthony Hollis, is now facing a virtual life sentence homicide. Thursday he was booked in to the Allen County Jail on a murder charge, according to the Allen County Sheriff's Department website.

Tuesday, the Allen County Coroner identified him. His name is Kardenia Anthony Hollis of Fort Wayne. He was 16 years old. “They called him Nunu,” Parker said. Teens have told him that Hollis was a student at Northup High School. Hollis was found early Saturday morning - around 3 am. - lying in front of the Woodbridge Apartments in the 1800 block of River Run.

On the night of Feb. 19, 2023, Brandon Golden and Daisha “Twink” Fitts walked out of the Fraternal Order of Eagles casino on Bluffton Road at 11:23 p.m., got into Golden’s van and left happy, pulling out on to Winchester Road Six minutes later, Golden was frantically speeding back into the casino parking lot, his friend Daisha, a beloved local barber, dying between the passenger and the back seat after she was shot in an ambush at Winchester and Airport Expressway.

No, according to a probable cause affidavit written by long-time Fort Wayne detective R.J. Sutphin, Perry Mitchell Miles refused to leave the home after he was viewed in the act of molesting two little girls.

The state says Haywood, 32, and Devonte Travier, almost 31, acted in concert that night and ambushed Golden’s minivan at the intersection of Winchester Road and the Airport Expressway, killing Daisha “Twink” Fitts in error and missing their target, Golden, altogether.

It could have gone another way, if the bullets had hit their mark. But as it is, the probable cause affidavit is scary enough. Just before midnight July 10, Wyat Michael Prichard, 19, is accused of threatening to kill his girlfriend’s family members, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Allen County Sheriff’s Deputy Z. Filipiak. 

Royal Davis, Jr. took the stand on the last day of his trial and told his story, even though it would have been difficult to overcome a felony murder charge when you flat out admit you were there when the homicide occurred.  Friday, after the full four-day trial, Davis was found guilty of those charges and the gun enhancement that can add up to 20 years to a sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 8.

The stabbing Jan. 4 of this year around 7:30 p.m. sparked outrage and further fear among some residents that it just isn’t safe to go downtown. What happened was a drama in the local homeless community on display through video, testimony and evidence this week in Allen Superior Court. 

At 1:20 a.m. on Sept. 15, 2023, two people - Royal Davis, Jr. , 38, and Jessica Fuentes, 31 - burst into the back door of the home at the corner of Saint Marys and Margaret Street, disrupting a familiar family scene.

The freedom bell rang for a 17-year-old charged with murder the day before fireworks took over the city of Fort Wayne. A murder charge against Josiyah T. Derrick was dismissed July 3. He'd been charged with murder a few days after the June 23 homicide of Eriyn White, 20, of Fort Wayne

Inmate Jeffery Clouser, 60, was found hours later with his face smashed in so badly, it's hard to imagine anyone surviving such an attack.