INDIANAPOLIS — Officials with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department have released more information about 34-year-old Tevis Walker’s reported connection in the shooting death of 15-year-old Janiya Carr.
According to previous reports, Carr was found dead at an apartment complex on the northeast side of Indianapolis on Wednesday. Walker was arrested in relation to the fatal shooting on Thursday evening.
Police said in an affidavit for probable cause for Walker that on Wednesday morning, a woman walking her dog reported to the Indianapolis Fire Department officials that she saw what appeared to be a dead body behind an apartment complex in the 10200 block of Aristocrat Drive N.
When the body was found, IMPD, along with medics, were dispatched to the scene, the documents said. Officials said that the body, which was later identified as Carr, had a bullet wound in her right cheek and trauma to the back of her head. Carr had been listed as a runaway on Oct. 28.
The documents said that video from the apartment complex showed Carr walking in the Complex around 4:15 a.m. on Oct. 28. At that time, a 2018 Kia Optima, which was later found to be registered to Walker, approached her. Carr stopped, spoke with the driver, who police allege was Walker, and got in the vehicle.
Walker, according to the documents, was a maintenance person for the apartment complex. Officials said Walker also had outstanding narcotics and firearms charges in Alabama and Georgia.
In an interview that IMPD reportedly conducted with Walker, Walker confirmed with police that the Kia Optima was his, and he was the only one who operated it. Walker also told police he remembered picking up a girl and drove her to a location several miles east to purchase a tablet. Walker said that the person he was purchasing the tablet from did not show up and Walker returned Carr back to the apartment complex.
According to surveillance footage, the documents said Walker’s vehicle was shown returning to the complex at around 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 28. The vehicle was driven into the grass behind his building and was stopped near the area where Carr was later located.
“The lights of (the) vehicle go off,” the documents read. “Movement can be seen, but the view is not clear.”
Four minutes later, the video reportedly shows the vehicle pull back from behind the building and park in front of Walker’s residence.
Walker was arrested on preliminary charges of murder and was transported to jail by an IMPD wagon.
