INDIANAPOLIS — An arrest warrant remains active for a 19-year-old charged with a deadly double shooting at Castleton Square Mall.
This week a special prosecutor filed charges of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated battery and battery with a deadly weapon against the suspect, Clyde Johnson.
Still, the father of the victim who survived the shooting wishes those charges would have been more serious.
The violence started with a mistake over two identical cars in the parking lot of Castleton Square Mall in January.
“This just should not have happened,” said Pastor Eddie Smith Sr.
After killing 16-year-old Michael Mason Jr., prosecutors claim Clyde Johnson got out of the car and chased down Pastor Smith’s son, shooting him four times in the leg.
“He clearly said that he went after my son to get him, that he couldn’t let him leave. He murdered a kid and tried to kill my son. A person like that doesn’t need to be on the street,” said Smith.
According to the affidavit, Johnson admitted he shot the victims because he thought he was about to be robbed. Regardless, Pastor Smith wishes murder and attempted murder charges would have been filed.
“We are again devastated. It feels like being punched in the gut all over again,” said Smith.
The affidavit also details how Johnson felt like he was being “hunted” because last November Johnson was a key witness to a murder on N. Grant.
In that case, 19-year-old Lee-Anthony Hubbard is charged with murdering a 40-year-old woman following a domestic dispute.
Police reports show a month later in December, Jeremerrrell Hubbard, was arrested on weapons charges after being spotted outside the Grant Street home. Jeremerrell was later accused of a third unrelated murder in February of this year.
Given all those connections, the Marion County prosecutor recused himself and asked for a special prosecutor to be appointed. That led to the criminal charges against Johnson nearly two months after the Castleton shooting.
“The system failed Mike. The system failed my son. The system failed my family,” said Smith.
Pastor Smith also feels the justice system bears responsibility for the violence, by failing to protect Johnson as a witness from the beginning.
“The way he was handled failed him as well,” said Smith. “So all of this was absolutely avoidable.”
The special prosecutor, Matt Savage, who works as a deputy prosecutor in Madison County, did send a written statement in which he declined to make any comments on the case.
Savage wrote: “I certainly understand your request for additional information. Prosecutors have an obligation under Indiana Rule of Professional Conduct 3.8 to avoid making certain public, extrajudicial comments about a pending case. As a result, and out of an abundance of caution to avoid influencing public opinion about this matter, I will have no public comment while the case is pending in court. Instead, I will refer you to the information contained in the Charging Information and Affidavit of Probable Cause.”
As reported by WTTV CBS4Indy