A 30-year-old Indiana man was arrested after the shooting death of his 37-year-old sister Wednesday night at a home on the far southwest side of Indianapolis.
Krystopher Monroe was listed Thursday afternoon as an inmate in the Marion County jail on a preliminary charge of murder. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office will decide what charges to file against Monroe in the death of Ashlee Atkins. A court date was set for Tuesday morning, online jail data says.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department responded to an incomplete 911 call shortly after 6:10 p.m. Wednesday in the 8700 block of Hosta Way. That’s in the Camby Village subdivision off Mooresville Road east of State Road 67. Police arrived to find Atkins with a gunshot wound. She died at the crime scene.
IMPD says Thursday that Monroe was still on scene when officers arrived. According to court documents, Monroe called 911 after the initial incomplete call and claimed he shot his sister in self-defense. He was taken into custody at the shooting scene.
Court documents say at least two of Atkins’ four children were in the house when the shooting happened. The oldest son, who is a teenager, called his stepfather and told him “that Uncle had shot mom.”
The oldest son told police he awoke to Atkins and Monroe arguing. The oldest son told his younger siblings to go outside and get away from Atkins and Monroe. The oldest son and one sibling went bicycling while two other siblings stayed in the house. The bicycling children returned to the home to find it locked. The oldest son told police that he kicked in a door and “went towards the garage and saw his uncle holding a shotgun and his mother was lying on the floor bleeding,” court documents say.
The son told police he heard Monroe say, “Ashlee are you dead?” court documents say.
The second-oldest son, a teenager who was in the home during the shooting, told police Atkins and Monroe were arguing about whether he should be paying to stay at her home. The second-oldest son told police he heard Monroe say that “you not gonna do nothing” and then heard two “loud bangs.”
Court documents say Monroe told homicide investigators that he and Atkins had been arguing for a few hours, and his sister had ignored his requests to get away from him. Monroe says he was retrieving his wallet from the garage before leaving the house when he picked up a shotgun, a backpack and a container of ammunition, and the gun went off accidentally. He then “pumped the shotgun,” putting another slug in the chamber, and the weapon went off a second time, he told police.
On Wednesday night, IMPD Officer William Young, a department spokesman, talked with the news media about the neighborhood: “This is somewhat of a quiet area, and so something like this is a precedent in this area.”
Anyone with information was asked to contact Detective Lottie Patrick by email or by calling the IMPD homicide office at 317-327-3475.
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