By Mackenzie Klahr
On June 22, Fishers experienced its first homicide in over 20 years and only the second in its history after a recent Fishers High School graduate was stabbed to death.
Conner J. Shockley was pronounced dead shortly after police responded to a call about a fight in the Harrison Green neighborhood outside a residence on Wooster Court.
Police reached the scene shortly after 11 p.m. and found 18-year-old Shockley lying facedown in a yard stabbed three times by what crime scene technicians believed was a knife.
Police took 18-year-old Corbin Montgomery into custody and later charged him on a count of murder according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office.
Montgomery, who fled the scene and left Shockley on the ground, was arrested when he voluntarily returned to the house after talking to his father. The murder weapon, a pocketknife, was found in Montgomery’s car according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Report.
According to court documents the disagreement was over the suspect’s girlfriend. Montgomery pleaded not guilty during a video hearing and is claiming he acted in self-defense. He is being held without bond in the Hamilton County jail on charges of murder. Montgomery’s next court date is a pre-trial hearing September 5.
Fishers, which is ranked the second safest suburb in America by Movoto Real Estate has only 18 violent crimes per 100 thousand residents. That translates to a 1.92 percent chance of violent crime in the town each year according to Movoto statistics.
Chief of Police, George Kehl thanked the Hamilton County Fire Department, Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Services for its assistance throughout the situation and reiterated that Fishers is still one of the most secure places to be.
“Although impossible to prevent all criminal activity we can rest assured that our community has some of the most talented law enforcement professionals, in the country, working tirelessly to keep Fishers one of the safest places to live,” Kehl said.
In order to ensure the safety of its citizens, Fishers offers programs such as Crime Watch, which allows households within town the ability to come together and share its concerns while developing a defense strategy with the police department.
The police department has approximately ten officers on dispatch at any given time. For more information on the safety of Fishers and how to can set up a crime watch you can visit the police department’s website at www.fishers.in.us.
