Hints of DNA on threatening notes left at a police station riddled with bullets.
A robbery case out of Ohio.
Glimpses of awhite Chevrolet Impala that police say servedas both a getaway vehicle and the site ofdomestic violence.
Those were just a few of the pieces of evidenceZionsville, Indianapolis and IndianaState Policedetectives used in their monthlong pursuit of an Indianapolis man who they said brazenly gunned down an elderly manand shot up two police stations. Authoritiesoutlined the details of the investigation in a probable cause affidavit in the Zionsville case.
That man, 21-year-old Damoine A. Wilcoxson, is now facing a murder chargein Boone County. An initial hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in Boone Superior Court.
Additional charges could come later in Marion County.
The search of Wilcoxson began the afternoon of Sept. 28 after 82-year-old John A. Clements was fatally shot in the driveway of his Zionsville home. He was shot twice in the chest, once in the right arm and once in the right leg.
In a statement Tuesday, Clements' family thanked investigators and expressed relief that they had arrested a suspect.
Clements’ wife, who has severe dementia and was inside the home, could not provide substantive information to investigators.
One witness, a man who was outside walking his dog and getting his mail,said that Clements also was heading to his mailbox before the shooting.The man saw a white Chevrolet Impala round the cul-de-sac and momentarily pause before driving directly into Clements’ driveway. The witness went inside his home before hearingthree gunshots.
He darted back outside to see the Impala speeding away and his neighbor on the ground.
Two women who live in the area told policethey heard “four loud bangs,” which caused them to look out their front windows. They, too, saw the white Impala.The story told by the neighbors was confirmed by members of a painting crew who were on lunch break.
With witness accounts in hand, detectives began to scan the scene for physical evidence. They started by finding four .223-caliber shell casings with the head stamp “FC 223 REM,” followed by two tire mark impressions in the surface of the driveway.
Nothing belonging to the victim and his wife was missing. Nothing inside the home was out of place.
Two days after the shooting, police were able to obtain surveillance footage from a nearby library. That footage gave police their first glimpse of theImpala spotted at the scene.
Dash camera footage from officers who responded to the shooting call showed that the same Impala yielded to a police vehicle just three minutes after the shooting was reported.
As Zionsville detectives continued to pursue the driver of the Impala, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Northwest District headquarters was hit with multiple rounds of gunfire on Oct. 4. At least 30 rounds were fired at the station;shell casings were for .223-caliber bullets, and twoof those casings had the same “FC 223 REM” head stamp as the casings from the Zionsville homicide scene.
Police also found a collection of handwritten notes at the police station. Those notes demanded $100,000 and made several racially charged threats.
Nine days later, the IMPD North District headquarters was shot at 16 times. Again police found .223-caliber shell casings with head stamps consistent with the casings found at the Clements home and the previous IMPD headquarters shooting. More notes were found at the scene.
Additionalanalysis conducted by IMPD and Indiana State Police officials confirmed that the rounds were fired from the same rifle.
On Oct. 25, investigators learned that a partial DNA profile was found on one of the notes from the second IMPD station shooting. A DNA profile also was obtained from a swab of the head stamp of one of the recovered shell casings.
They found a DNA match connected to aOhio case.That match indicated that Wilcoxson’s DNA was on the shell casing and note. He had previous arrests in Ohio for robbery.
With a suspect name in hand,investigators foundWilcoxson’s “vanity profile” on Facebook that was being maintained under the name Frank Lucas, the infamous heroin dealer who operated in the 1960s and 1970s. The page containedimages of men carrying assault rifles and language similar to the notes found at the IMPD headquarters shootings.
Detectives dug deeper. They learned that Wilcoxson was a suspect in an incident that involved a woman having a gun held to her head and threatened while inside a vehicle.
That woman was identified as Wilcoxson’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child.
The vehicle? A white Chevy Impala.
Call IndyStar reporter Justin L. Mack at (317) 444-6138. Follow him on Twitter:@justinlmack.
Records: Zionsville murder suspect held gun to girlfriend's head
