INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – For more than three years, Richard Grundy III has successfully outrun and allegedly outgunned his enemies while avoiding conviction by Marion County authorities from crimes ranging from drug dealing and conspiracy to murder.
Today it appears his luck ran out.
Grundy was seriously wounded by gunmen as he rode in a funeral procession to bury his own slain cousin at a northeast side cemetery. According to a source close to the investigation, he had a $50,000 bounty on his head at the time of the shooting.
The alleged drug kingpin first came to the attention of IMPD detectives following a pair of double murders in the winter of 2014.
Tyrece Dorsey and William Davis were shot to death outside a N. Rural St. convenience store on January 28, 2014.
Three days later, Julius Douglas and Carlos Jefferson were murdered on N. Hovey St.
Homicide detectives said John Means was a hit-man for the Grundy drug gang and carried out the killings on the orders of the crew’s namesake.
Grundy and several associates were arrested a year later after firing shots at pursuing IMPD detectives one night on the city’s northwest side.
Grundy was charged with ordering the four murders allegedly committed by Means and later was accused of operating an extensive drug ring importing marijuana from Texas and Arizona.
Three trials and two not guilty verdicts later, Means was set free and the murder charges against Grundy were dropped.
Cases against Grundy associates for the early 2015 police chase were dropped and reduced in the pursuance of guilty pleas to lesser charges.
Grundy himself was finally released on bond in July of last year only to be transferred to a Texas courtroom to be charged and released on bond for drug counts.
Grundy still faces Indiana counts related to his alleged drug conspiracy ring.
The joy of Grundy’s freedom and homecoming was short lived as on September 14 of last year a Grundy associate, Mack Taylor, and another man, Alexander Brown, were found shot to death in an alley in the 3000 block of N. Gladstone Ave.
An investigation revealed that Taylor and Brown attempted to rob the stash house of an alleged drug dealer, Terrell Scott, who fired back in self-defense.
The prosecutor’s determination may have cleared Scott with authorities but not with the Grundy crew, according to IMPD sources.
Just before dawn on the morning of May 5 of this year, Scott died in a hail of 30 gunshots in the parking lot of the Quail Run Apartments in Zionsville far from the dead man’s traditional and familiar community on Indianapolis’ east side.
Zionsville Police believed Scott was targeted.
Early on the morning of July 9, Grundy was accompanied by his cousin Jasmine Moore to Sunset Strip, a strip club at W. 16th St. and Lafayette Rd.
At 3:30 a.m., as Grundy and Moore were leaving the bar, gunshots were fired, fatally wounding the 28-year-old woman.
During a recent vigil, IMPD maintained a heavy presence to discourage any retaliation against Grundy and the victim’s family.
Shortly before 4 p.m. today, as the Moore procession approached Southerland Park Cemetery at 4087 Millersville Road, witnesses said three men in a white GMC or Chevrolet pick up truck opened fire, leaving behind approximately 20 shell casings, and seriously wounding Grundy and two women.
The closest IMPD officers to first respond to the shooting scene heard the gunfire from their child abuse offices more than a block away.
