Greenwood police have arrested three men they said were involved in an armed robbery earlier this year at a Greenwood apartment complex that ended in a shooting that sent one of the suspects to the hospital.
Levi S. Walsman, 31, of Shelbyville; Shane Gross, 26, of Miami, Ind.; and Antonio Lamont Mitzs, 29, of Franklin, have all been charged with aiding, inducing or causing robbery, a level 5 felony that could result in up to six years in prison. Police said they robbed a man at gunpoint in a parking lot at BayShore Apartments, according to court documents.
During a months-long investigation, Greenwood police discovered that five people orchestrated a robbery which targeted a drug dealer who lived at BayShore.
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Just before 10 p.m. on April 13, shots rang out in the apartment complex near State Road 135 and Main Street. Police found several shell casings, a black BB gun and blood splatter in the parking lot. Witnesses told police a gold SUV had fled the scene, and a man walking near the clubhouse was possibly involved, court documents said.
When officers approached the man witnesses pointed out, they discovered that he was bleeding from the forehead and had blood on his shirt, according to court documents. He told police he ran to BayShore from an adjacent apartment complex when he heard gunshots and was hit in the head by a stranger as he was running to the scene.
Police let the man go because his injury was the result of blunt-force trauma and he could not be tied to the shooting, court documents said.
Police later impounded the man’s father’s car which was found parked at the apartment complex. There was blood smeared on the driver’s side door and the door handle inside, court documents said. But the man never mentioned having a car parked there, police said.
Minutes after the robbery, officers spotted a gold SUV matching the description from witnesses traveling north on Madison Avenue near County Line Road, and saw blood smeared on the car and a bullet hole, court documents said.
A woman was driving, and Mitzs, Walsman and Gross were all in the car with her. Gross was bleeding from a gunshot wound to his back and was taken to Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis, court documents said.
Mitzs and the driver said they had been at BayShore Apartments, but told police they had no idea where the shots fired came from, according to court documents. They said they were sitting in their car at the apartment complex waiting on friends when Gross ran up to them asking for a ride to the hospital, they said.
The driver told police she did not know Gross, and Gross told police he did not know the other people in the car, according to court documents.
No one was arrested at that time.
Police later interviewed Gross at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital, and he told them he did not know who shot him and didn’t want to press charges.
On April 23, the man police interviewed at BayShore the night of the shooting voluntarily went to the Greenwood Police Department to give officers a statement, court documents said. He told police he was robbed by three men the night of the shooting. He told them one of the men — later identified as Mitzs — struck him in the head with a hard object, which caused the bleeding to his forehead.
He told police they stole his watch, necklace and about $100, and said he had never seen the three men before.
During the robbery, he was struggling with one of the men when shots were fired, he told police. A girl who was in the car with him took off running, he said, which is why he lied to them the night of the shooting. He wanted to find her and make sure she was OK, he said.
He told police he was selling drugs to a woman related to one of the suspects when the robbery occurred.
The three men approached the vehicle during the drug deal, he told police. Mitzs held a gun to his head, which went off during a struggle between he and Mitzs. He said that must have been the bullet that struck Gross in the back.
The three men took off running after the shots were fired, he told police. He said he lied to them in the beginning because he was scared he would go to jail for selling marijuana, court documents said.
Police searched Mitzs’s home and found a gun, according to court documents. Mitzs told police he was involved in the robbery, but said he didn’t shoot anyone. He told police he, Walsman, Gross and two women — including the driver the night of the shooting and the relative of one of the suspects — orchestrated the deal and planned the robbery, court documents said. Mitzs said they stole about $5,000 in cash. He told police he was already back at his car when gunshots were fired and had no idea who fired them, but also said he fired three shots into the air as they were leaving.
Surveillance video from the Johnson County jail captured discussions of the robbery while some of the people involved were in jail. Phone records revealed that Walsman and Mitzs had been planning to rob the man for money and marijuana, according to court documents.
All three men were arrested on warrants in the last week. Mitzs is being held without bond at the Johnson County jail. Walsman is being held on $15,000 bond at the jail. Gross was released from the jail on $3,300 bond.
