10:27 p.m.: UPDATE: Masked gunman wanted in homicide

By Shawn McGrath and Brandi Watters

June 05, 2008 10:25 pm

— ANDERSON — Police are investigating an early morning homicide in the 2100 block of Noble Street. Andre Blackmon, 36, was pronounced dead at 5 a.m. Thursday in his apartment at 2106 Noble St.
Police were called to the apartment at 3:24 a.m., after a neighbor reported seeing a masked gunman leaving Blackmon’s apartment.
Police are looking for a man in connection with the shooting but have not yet released further details.
“All we know we can say now is that it was a masked gunman,” said Detective Mitch Carroll, Anderson police spokesman. “We haven’t confirmed race at this point. We can only say it’s male.”
Late Thursday, Carroll said detectives had formally interviewed about a dozen people with possible information connected to the case, but they don’t yet have any suspects.
“A lot of them have rumors or innuendoes of what went on,” he said.
Madison County Coroner Ned Dunnichay said an autopsy performed at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie revealed the cause of death as a single gunshot wound to the head.
Police are also looking into the Sunday burglary of Blackmon’s residence. Detective Kevin Earley said during a court hearing to obtain a search warrant that Blackmon told police $2,500 and a set of digital weighing scales were stolen from his home. The hearing was held to obtain a warrant to search a West 53rd Street storage unit.
Earley said investigators learned Blackmon was renting the storage unit, and when they brought a drug-detecting dog to the site, the K9 reacted to the unit, likely indicating drugs were inside.
Earley said during the hearing that a search of Blackmon’s home turned up a baggie of marijuana and an assault rifle ammunition magazine. Detectives found an AK-47 assault rifle and another baggie of marijuana inside Blackmon’s 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis.
Detective Mark Cole said during an earlier court hearing that investigators received information that Blackmon was likely pistol-whipped in the moments leading up to his slaying.
Deputy Prosecutor Pat Ragains said drugs may have been a factor in Blackmon’s death.
“Given the drugs and those items that were located on the premises,” he said during one of the hearings, “there may be some indication that this was an attempt — either successful or unsuccessful — to rip the victim off of some drugs.”
Carroll declined to say if the assault rifle was loaded. He also declined to say how much marijuana was found in Blackmon’s apartment and car or what was discovered in the storage unit.
“Right now it’s pretty crucial in the case,” he said.
Carroll said the neighborhood is a quiet one.
“I don’t know of an inordinate number of calls that come to this area. The only thing that jumps off the page is the burglary.”
Carroll said detectives spent much of Thursday morning canvassing the neighborhood, talking to neighbors who may have seen Blackmon prior to his murder. “We’re retracing the victim’s steps — where he was, who he talked to before the shooting.”
Neighbors reported seeing a black Chevrolet Blazer circling the neighborhood around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, but police could not confirm whether the vehicle was related to the shooting.
“We have received that information. In fact, we’re running down a lot of these leads right now,” Carroll said. “I’ve been in the neighborhood myself chasing down information.”
Jeff Rude, 33, lives in the building next to Blackmon’s apartment and said he did not hear shots fired and first learned of the homicide when police knocked on his door at 3:45 a.m.
Rude said Blackmon had only moved into the apartment a few months ago. “He mainly stayed to himself.
“It’s been a calm neighborhood,” said Rude, a three-year resident of the neighborhood. “You never know, that could’ve been my house.”
Frank McGuire, 51, was visiting the neighborhood shortly before the shooting and said it is the latest in a string of violent crimes in Anderson. “Anderson is starting to get like Indianapolis. You hear about all the murders in Indianapolis and it’s starting to get that way here.”


Have a tip?
Anyone with information about the shooting death of Andre Blackmon should call the Anderson Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at (765) 648-6730.

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