INDIANAPOLIS — A man has been charged in connection with the death of a woman who died after she came to Riley Hospital for Children with a gunshot wound, according to police.
Joan Berry, 41, was brought to Riley Hospital for Children around 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday with multiple gunshot wounds, according to a probable cause affidavit. Berry later died.
Detectives reviewed security camera footage and saw Berry was falling from the vehicle, according to the affidavit. As the driver, later identified as Gary Jackson Jr., 39, drove away with the passenger door still open, he ran over Berry's arm and leg.
Just before 8:40 p.m. Wednesday, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to the area near East 10th Street and North Downey Avenue on the report of shots being fired from a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle Berry was seen falling from, according to the affidavit.
Officers arrived and learned the driver of the car was armed with a gun, fired shots and tried to carjack someone, according to the affidavit. The man, identified as Jackson, was found in bushes on the side of a house. A handgun was found in the bushes near Jackson and a mounted laser attachment was found in the driveway near Jackson and the gun.
Officers found a possible bullet hole in the windshield of Jackson's vehicle and blood on his pants, according to the affidavit. They asked Jackson where the bullet hole in the windshield came from, Jackson told them "she tried to rob me."
Emergency medical personnel were called to the scene to assess for injuries related to the crash and took Jackson to Eskenazi Hospital, according to the affidavit.
Jackson later told detectives he picked up Berry, parked behind an abandoned house, he smoked PCP and she smoked marijuana, according to the affidavit. He told detectives they were alone in the car and no one else was at the house. The next thing Jackson said he remembers is being in a crash.
Jackson "became upset" when detectives told him Berry died at the hospital, according to the affidavit.
“I already know what happened, man," Jackson told detectives, according to the affidavit. "I can just imagine what happened."
When a detective asked Jackson to clarify what he meant, he said, “have you ever seen someone smoke that s**t? They don’t know what’s going on.”
On Sunday, prosecutors charged Jackson with murder, unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, felon carrying a handgun, criminal recklessness committed with a deadly weapon and leaving the scene of an accident driver fails to immediately stop at the scene, according to online court records. A pretrial conference is scheduled for June 9 and a jury trial is scheduled for June 28.
Anyone with additional information is asked to call IMPD homicide detectives at 317-327-3475 or report tips anonymously to Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-TIPS (8477).
