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.

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.