Murder charges have been filed against a man who got into a drunken row with bar patrons, then fatally shot a Black man who helped de-escalate his fights, right after calling him a racial slur.
The shooting happened in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 17 at a bar called Mucky Duck, 4WTHR reported.
Police charged 21-year-old Kaeden Douglas with the murder of 28-year-old Jereme Dillingham.
Witnesses told authorities that Douglas first made a scene in the bar when he threw a chair to the ground and started shoving a man. Surveillance footage showed Dillingham intervene and stop the fight. He and Douglas even parted on friendly terms, shaking hands and hugging, the video shows.
But then, Douglas got into a rowdy dispute with the staff after they asked him about the tab at the bar. After launching a heated altercation with a waitress, Dillingham intervened once again, protected the waitress, and Douglas was thrown out of the bar by a bouncer.
A bartender told investigators that before he left, Douglas said, “You are all dead men.”
Then, he walked to his car, where bar patrons heard him repeatedly say the N-word. A woman eventually confronted Douglas, the two got into an argument, and she told police she ended up punching him.
She said he then reached into his passenger side window, while saying, “B***h, I have something for you.” She ran away in fear that he would harm her.
Only minutes later, Dillingham left the bar. When Douglas saw him, witnesses say he shouted, “(N-word) come here.”
Douglas is white, and Dillingham is Black.
When Dillingham walked over to Douglas’ car, security footage showed him reaching into Douglas’ car before he was shot in the chest. Douglas then sped off.
One witness told police that he heard the sound of a gun cock and tried to warn Dillingham as he approached the car.
A bystander rendered medical aid to Dillingham while waiting for medics to arrive. The 28-year-old was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A SWAT team arrested Douglas at his home. Police found six shell casings from a .40 caliber handgun in his car that reportedly matched the gun seen in the surveillance footage.
In his interviews with police detectives, Douglas said that he could not recall what happened at the bar that night.
He told them that he could “drink like a hog,” mixed light and dark drinks, and that he was a “lightweight,” but also accused bar staff of overserving him and giving him drinks with heavy pours.
He also alleged that someone could have possibly spiked his drinks.
A bartender told police that Douglas had three shots of whiskey in the three hours he was at the bar that night.
When investigators asked if he feared for his life, he first said that he wasn’t afraid, but then walked back those statements to claim self-defense, WIBC reported.
Douglas was charged with murder five days after the shooting. An autopsy confirmed Dillingham’s death was a homicide.
“The allegations contained in the probable cause affidavit state that racist and vile language was used before this fatal shooting and demonstrate how hate and aggression can escalate into a deadly outcome,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said in a statement.