(INDIANAPOLIS) — Prosecutors have charged the man they believe killed former Indianapolis
Cathedral and IU football player Chris Beaty during the Indianapolis riots in May.
Marcus Anderson was arrested four months ago on a charge of robbing a woman at gunpoint in a
parking garage across the street from where Beaty was killed, near the intersection of Vermont and
Delaware Streets downtown. Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears says it was the first in a string
of five holdups in 20 minutes linked to Anderson and four companions as they circled Beaty’s block.
Court records say text messages from Beaty indicate he stepped outside to make sure his
apartment building was safe from the protests, and walked into the middle of the robbery spree.
Police say the nightclub manager and former defensive lineman was shot four times.
Mears says police spent months piecing together the timeline of events from eyewitness testimony
and a potpourri of forensic evidence, including video from seven different surveillance cameras, cell
phone location data, and emails and Facebook exchanges in which Anderson discusses trying to
find a buyer for a gun, and “need(ing) to get lost.”
Court records say police found a phone charger and vape pens near Beaty’s body which matched
items taken in one of the earlier robberies, while shell casings matched a bullet fired into the hood of
a would-be robbery victim’s car minutes before the murder.
Anderson is one of two people charged in the parking-garage robbery. A third member of the group,
Dorian Murrell, was shot to death two hours after Beaty, by a man who told police Murrell shoved him to the ground and was standing over him. Tyler Newby is scheduled for trial in February.
Mears says it’s likely more people will be charged in Beaty’s death, but investigators believe it was
Anderson who pulled the trigger.
Because Beaty was killed during a robbery, the charge could carry the death penalty. Mears says
once prosecutors finish deciding who else should face charges, they’ll discuss that issue with
Beaty’s family.
