NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- A fifth person has been charged in connection to the fatal shooting at Harvest Homecoming in New Albany.
Court records show 18-year-old Damarius Gardiner Person, of Louisville, is charged with murder, aggravated battery, assisting a criminal and obstruction of justice. Police said Person was part of a fight at the festival that ultimately led to the shooting.
According to court documents, Person drove his girlfriend and Isaiah Page, another one of the five suspects charged, to Harvest Homecoming. Police said Person encouraged Page to shoot his gun first. Investigators believe Person then ran and drove Page and his girlfriend back to Kentucky.
Bryce Gerlach, 18, was killed and two others were injured. A 22-year-old man, Brendan Hagan, and a 42-year-old woman, Michele Nashi, were both shot in the leg and hospitalized. Police believe all three victims were innocent bystanders who were not related to the dispute that led to the shooting.
Gerlach was a senior at Corydon Central High School, where he was also on the football team.
Tim Pavey, Nashi's sister-in-law, said police are trying to make sure everyone is held accountable for what happened that night.
"It just shows that the New Albany Police Department is not giving up," Pavey said Monday.
Person is also accused of telling someone to delete text messages related Harvest Homecoming. Police said the shooting stemmed from an ongoing dispute between two groups, and Pavey said the men arrested decide to settle their differences with violence "with no regard for human life."
"They need to be held accountable, to know that life is precious," he said.
Joshua Smith, Shermichael Smith, and their roommate, Darius Tuff, are the other three men facing murder charges. A fourth man, Page, of Simpsonville, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and two counts of criminal recklessness.
On Oct. 27, Joshua Smith confessed to a New Albany Police detective to shooting his firearm into the air while at the ride area, according to an affidavit for probable cause that was unsealed Tuesday. He was arrested in October on lesser charges while the other two men were charged in November.
Police seized a gun from Smith's residence and a bullet matched a casing found at the scene, according to police.Â
"The location from which Joshua Smith fired his weapon had direct line-of-sight to where Bryce Gerlach landed and succumbed to his fatal gunshot," police wrote in the affidavit.Â
Shermichael Smith admitted to having his handgun, taking cover behind a vehicle where the three spent casings were recovered in the northern part of the parking lot Oct. 12 and driving his brother from the scene, according to the affidavit.
A witness told police Shermichael Smith shot his firearm in the direction of two victims. Â
Tuff is accused of driving the men to the festival and a witness told police Tuff also fired a gun.
Police have said they believe there was an ongoing dispute between "at least two groups of individuals" that led to shots being fired by multiple people.Â
Floyd County Prosecutor Chris Lane said Page fired the first shot. Police would not say if Page was firing at any of the Louisville men.Â
In the affidavits, police found a text thread the day after the shooting where Joshua Smith blamed a man for him previously getting robbed and his home shot up.Â
Joshua Smith texted, "Not what think was gonna rob him last night but then (he) started shootin at all of us," according to the affidavit. Smith denied shooting anyone, saying he ran, according to the texts. Page is not the man named in the texts.Â
This story will be updated.
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