How police found teens implicated in IU med school doctor’s murder
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Court documents released late Friday afternoon have revealed more about the events surrounding the fatal shooting of Indiana University medical school doctor Kevin Rodgers during a burglary.
Ka’Ron Bickham-Hurst, 18, faces felony charges of murder and burglary, along with additional theft charges. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said on Thursday that an unnamed juvenile also faces murder and burglary charges.
Officers responded on just after noon Nov. 20 to a call from the wife of Rodgers saying she had found Rodgers on their kitchen floor. Police arrived at the home in the 7500 block of Ballinshire South Drive to find Rodgers with gunshot wounds to the stomach and the head.
She told police he had called her around 10:20 a.m. to ask whether people were coming to clean the house gutters that morning and that “they were making a lot of noise.” She told him that they were scheduled to come the following day and then heard nothing on the phone from him for about seven minutes before hanging up and trying to call him back on the home phone and his cellphone, prompting her to leave work, arrive home and find him, court documents say.
Another witness told investigators he saw four males get out of a car and walk toward Rodgers’ house and then run back to the car five minutes later.
On Nov. 19, an IMPD detective investigating what court documents call a series of residential burglaries. They occurred in the five weeks leading up to Rodgers’ death. The detective learned that a number of electronics pawned by Bickham-Hurst on Nov. 18 matched the description of items reported as stolen during burglaries in the area on Oct. 12, Nov. 8, Nov. 16, Nov. 17 and Nov. 19. Based on details provided by victims, the detective believed Bickham-Hurst and his associates were involved in the burglaries.
On the morning of Nov. 20, the same detective spent time observing Bickham-Hurst’s whereabouts. Just before noon, the detectives investigating the series of burglaries became aware of the Rodgers death investigation. A witness description of the vehicle seen leaving Rodgers’ house matched the one the detective saw Bickham-Hurst in, and officers eventually performed a traffic stop, leading to Bickham-Hurst’s arrest.
Investigators questioned Bickham-Hurst and as a result stopped a black Dodge Charger near Vinewood Avenue and Gateway Drive, about a mile east of the Ballinshire Estates neighborhood, taking the five occupants of that car in for questioning as well.
On the evening of Nov. 20, officers conducting surveillance of a home at Gateway Drive saw what they said appeared to be two juvenile males go into the residence, come back out with what appeared to be a handgun and get into a white Ford Fusion.
Officers conducted a traffic stop and detained the two juveniles at that time.
During interviews on Nov. 20 with investigators, a 16-year-old told police he and his brother had been playing basketball around 10 a.m. that day and were not in the car with Bickham-Hurst, nor was the 16-year-old involved in the murder. A 15-year-old interviewed said he’d woken up around noon or 1 p.m that day, played basketball with Bickham-Hurst and another person and then went to a girl’s house.
A search of the Dodge Charger uncovered a cigar box with four Cathedral High School championship rings with the name Rodgers engraved on them, according to court documents. Rodgers was a lacrosse coach at Cathedral.
Bickham-Hurst remained Friday night in the Marion County Jail. IMPD said in an email that his jail booking photo was not being released “for investigative reasons.”
His initial hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Monday.
