INDIANAPOLIS — Police said a 34-year-old man shot and killed 15-year-old Janiya Carr and left her body in the woods behind his apartment building.
The property's owner said the suspect worked for the apartment complex, which is the same complex in which the victim lived.
Carr's mother, Demetria Boston, said she's angry as more details come out about her daughter's alleged killer.
Police said around 4:15 a.m. Saturday, surveillance video shows Carr getting in the passenger seat of the suspect's car.
The probable cause affidavit shows that a little over an hour later, the suspect drove his car into the grass where the body was found by someone walking their dog Wednesday morning.
Police said the suspect had active warrants in Alabama and Georgia.
(NOTE: 13News does not name suspects in cases until formal charges are filed by prosecutors.)
"How is it that they allowed this man to work here knowing that he has a warrant out of Alabama?" Boston asked. "How can you allow that? I feel tortured."
The Gene B. Glick Company, which owns the apartment complex, shared the following updated statement with 13News:
"The Gene B. Glick Company was shocked and deeply saddened by the fatal shooting of Janiya Carr, a teenage resident of Carriage House East in Indianapolis. We mourn with her family and friends and our entire Carriage House East community over this senseless tragedy.
A Carriage House East employee has been arrested for this crime and we are working closely with IMPD to actively assist with the investigation. Our community’s private security force, comprised of off-duty IMPD officers, has been working with and providing information to IMPD and their detectives and investigators.
The individual under arrest was hired in June 2023 after passing state and national background checks administered by a professional screening company. All Glick employee applicants must pass these background checks to gain employment. These checks did not reveal the individual’s pending charges in Alabama and Georgia, and we have an inquiry into our background check provider for further explanation."
Neighbors said the suspect only worked there about a month.
"He goes in everybody's houses, the maintenance man," resident Chasity Simpson said. "You're not thinking anything of it."
The suspect was working in Shaelondra Brown's apartment late last week.
"I was talking to him right there. He had a boot on his foot," Brown said. "I'm like, what's wrong?"
After his arrest, neighbors recognized the man and said he's been seen early in the morning near the victim's home.
"We see this car parked right there every day, so that means you've been watching," Simpson said.
"Nobody thought anything, but it is weird that no other maintenance man does that," neighbor Tyandra Nelson said.
Residents are upset the suspect was hired in the first place and say, as of Friday morning, the property management hadn't reached out to anyone, including Carr's mother.
"They failed us. That company failed us," Boston said.
"I feel like the qualifications the tenants have to have, the employees should have that same qualification," Nelson said. "If we can’t live here with felonies and warrants, why can’t people who can come in our homes, to work on our homes, have the same? That doesn’t make sense."
The suspect is due in court Monday afternoon and is being held without bond.