GREENWOOD, Ind. — On Aug. 28, Greenwood police were called to a home on Euclid Avenue three times.
When police first arrived at the residence at 1:30 p.m., homeowner Shaun Moran told officers that he had been letting his son, Jacob Moran, 22, stay with him over the past few weeks due to being homeless. But after asking his son to leave on the given day, Shaun said Jacob became violent and battered him in front of his wife and younger son.
Despite eventually leaving, Jacob would return two more times to his father’s Euclid Avenue home within the next eight hours. His final return would prove to be fatal for his father.
According to court documents, police received the third 911 call of the day from Euclid Avenue that day at approximately 8:50 p.m. The only sound on the other end of the line was shallow breathing.
The previous 911 call, the second of the day made at 4:40 p.m., had been due to Jacob returning to the home and shoving his way inside. Jacob fled the home before officers arrived. Fearing for his family’s safety due to knowing his adult son possessed a handgun, Shaun asked Greenwood police to commit extra patrols to his neighborhood for the evening.
It is unclear if the Greenwood Police Department complied with that request. But four hours later, Shaun Moran was shot dead in his own garage.
While police were en route to Euclid Avenue following the third 911 call filled only with quiet breathing, dispatch received a fourth call from Shaun Moran’s wife. “Someone killed my husband,” she said.
Shaun Moran was found by Greenwood police officers lying in a pool of his own blood face down in his garage. There was a single bullet wound in his back. Investigators determined the shot came from outside the garage. Jacob Moran had reportedly stood at the window and shot through the glass, shooting his father in the back.
Jacob Moran later confessed to his mother that he might’ve shot his father even more times, had his gun not jammed. At least, this is what Jacob Moran’s mother told police, according to the court documents.
Jacob reportedly fled his father’s house after the shooting — but not before being spotted by a neighbor — and drove to his mother’s home near Franklin Road and E. 30th Street.
According to her account, Jacob admitted to shooting his father in the back after finding his dad going through his things in the garage. Jacob claimed to have confronted his father about this perceived invasion but then told his mother he left the garage, went around to the window and shot his father through the glass.
“I heard him scream,” Jacob Moran reportedly told his mother.
According to the court documents, the description of Jacob’s outfit given to investigators by Jacob’s mother matched the description given to investigators by the neighbor who saw a man fleeing the Euclid Avenue home after hearing a gunshot.
Court documents reveal that Jacob Moran never meant to answer for his crime, telling his mother, “This will be the last time you see me,” before fleeing the state in his 2015 BMW with temporary tags.
The next day, Jacob Moran’s BMW was found by a Michigan State Trooper in Sturgis, Michigan. The trooper spotted the vehicle parked along a dead-end road and thought it suspicious. A search of the tag linked the BMW to a homicide investigation.
Jacob Moran was taken into custody by the trooper who noted a Smith and Wesson handgun inside the center console.
Jacob Moran was officially charged with one count of murder and one count of domestic battery. Murder carries a prison term of 45 to 60 years in Indiana.
