We’re learning more about how South Bend Police centered in on the man they say shot and killed two others at the Quality Inn hotel near South Bend Airport.
Amarion Kirk and Jasani Taylor were shot dead inside a vehicle. That’s what investigators say they saw when they reviewed surveillance video obtained from the hotel.
They say Reontre Lawrence took aim into the driver’s side window with a rifle-type firearm. More than a dozen shell casings were found on scene.
Crime scene technicians also found Lawrence’s cell phone in a vehicle he’d been driving that he left in the hotel parking lot.
More surveillance video showed Lawrence running toward Beacon Heights Apartments, where he lived. Inside his apartment, police found clothing Lawrence was wearing at the time of the shooting.
Lawrence was arrested earlier this week in Indianapolis.
Read more details from the Probable Cause Affidavit below:
On October 19, 2023, officers with the South Bend Police Department were dispatched to the Quality Inn on Lincoln Way West in South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana, in reference to a shooting. When officers arrived on scene they located two males, later identified as Amarion Kirk and Jasani Taylor, unresponsive suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. They were pronounced dead at the scene. A third individual from the victim car was located and transported to the South Bend Police Department Investigative Bureau to be interviewed.
During the investigation, surveillance video was obtained from the hotel. In the video, the victim vehicle is seen pulling into the parking lot in the northeastern corner of the hotel. The victim vehicle is seen parking a few parking spots away from a Chevrolet Trax. The video shows the driver side window of the victim vehicle open. Shortly after a male is seen leaving the driver side area of the Chevrolet Trax shooting a rifle type firearm into the driver side of the victim vehicle multiple times. The shooter, later identified as Reontre Lawrence, is then seen running on foot. In processing the scene, crime scene techs were able to locate 13 casings. Multiple bullet defects were located on the victim vehicle, going into the driver side of the car.
In processing the scene, crime scene techs located a cellular phone on the driver side of the vehicle Lawrence was seen coming out of. The phone was collected by investigators.
After securing a search warrant for the device, investigators were able to determine that the phone number for the phone is associated with Lawrence. Additionally, in processing the vehicle, paperwork for Lawrence was found both in the car and in a black backpack. Surveillance footage from the hotel showed Lawrence carrying a backpack consistent to the one inside the vehicle.
Investigators obtained surveillance footage from surrounding businesses and residences. Lawrence is seen running with the firearm towards the location of Beacon Heights Apartments. During the course of the investigation, investigators were able to confirm an address in Beacon Heights that Lawrence currently resided at. A search warrant for the residence was applied for and later granted. In searching the residence, officers located clothing consistent with what Lawrence is wearing in the surveillance video from the hotel at the time of the shooting and from the areas Lawrence is seen fleeing.
