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A 19-year-old Uniondale man died in northern Wells County on Wednesday night after he was shot through the windshield of his car, police said.
Justin Sprow was driving at the intersection of County Roads 800 North and 100 West about 8 p.m. when a black pickup truck approached his silver Cavalier, Wells County Sheriff Robert E. Frantz said in a statement.
The occupants of the truck, from Adams County, fired on the Cavalier, killing Sprow, the statement said. It said a 19-year-old passenger, also of Uniondale, was uninjured and was able to retreat to a nearby corn field to call 911.
The truck fled the scene, but four people were detained early today in Decatur, the statement said. It named three adults ages 18 to 22, and said a 17-year-old juvenile it did not name was also in the truck, but the statement did not specify any charges against them.
The investigation involved the Wells County and Adams County sheriff's departments, Decatur police and Indiana State Police, the statement said. It said they were assisted by Indiana Excise police and police from Ossian, Markle and Bluffton, along with prosecutors from Wells and Adams counties and Wells County Community Corrections.
It was the second killing in the county in two days, stunning Frantz.
"This just doesn't happen in Wells County," he said.
Police believe Sprow was arguing with his killers over the phone as they were driving in separate cars.
He stopped his car at the intersection, and the shooters fired several shots into the windshield. The passenger ran into the field.
Sprow lived less than three miles away, Frantz said.
It's unclear what the argument was about, although the victim knew his attackers, the sheriff said.
About 8:30 p.m., the Wells County Sheriff's Department asked Allen County police to be on the lookout for a vehicle that might have traveled north into Allen County, said Sgt. Steve Stone, spokesman for the Allen County Sheriff's Department.
On Tuesday, Wells County police arrested Tyler White, 27, of Bluffton, on charges that he shot his wife, 28-year-old Amy White, to death. Police believe that fatal shooting was the result of a custody fight about the couple's 16-month-old son.
Frantz said in 37 years of working law enforcement in Wells County, he has handled four homicides.
"Half of them were this week," he said.
