INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis police arrested a 22-year-old man in the killing of a Southport High School student at a south side convenience store Monday night.
Jack Sumner Jr., 17, was shot to death outside the Speedway store at 3631 South Keystone Avenue shortly before 8 p.m.
The killing occurred before a parking lot full of witnesses, a store with surveillance cameras and in the vicinity of a passing police officer.
Mika Fahey had stopped at the store with Sumner when he emerged to find his half brother on the ground, mortally wounded in the chest.
“I went inside and got his candy, and I heard two gunshots. I seen him laying on the ground.”
When Fahey looked up, he saw Sumner’s alleged killer waving his gun around.
“I walked out, and I seen him, and he pointed his gun at me and at my kids in the car,” said Fahey, who drew his own legally owned and registered handgun and began to fire. “I shot at him, and I shouldn’t have had a gun, no, but I’m glad I did because if not, it could’ve been me and my wife and my kids.”
The killer fled the scene and was later arrested. On Wednesday, police identified him as Tyrese Roberts.
“(The killer) actually came to my mom’s house once and told my mother he was gonna kill everybody in the house, and he pulled a gun on him that night, and this was two years ago,” said Fahey, who indicated Sumner was in a dispute with the man over a girlfriend he had once dated. “That was like a brother to him. I hate to say that so much. He’s not anything to me now.”
Jack Sumner Sr. struggled to maintain his composure while talking about his son.
“My son was easygoing. You couldn’t have got any easier than him,” he said. “It hurts. It hurts. It hurts bad. People tell you you’re gonna get over this. I’m not gonna get over this.”
Sumner Sr. stood next to his son’s black Dodge Charger with a blown engine in need of a Hemi and personalized license plates that read “JakJack.”
“He didn’t even get a chance to graduate,” said Sumner Sr., “and now here we are because somebody wanted to take a 17-year-old kid’s life.”
As of November 2 at 3 p.m., there have been 233 homicides in Indianapolis this year. 37 of the victims were less than 20 years old.
