Grudge ends in gun death, murder count
Canterbury Green homicide scene
A weeklong feud between two men ended with a northeast-side shooting early Thursday that killed one and left the other facing a murder charge, police said.
When 23-year-old Wade Reader and 25-year-old Matthew Pufahl encountered each other at a northeast Allen County bar, a fight broke out, police said.
After the two were kicked out of the bar, they showed up at the Canterbury Green Apartments complex about 3:15 a.m. Officer Raquel Foster said one of the people involved in the fight, possibly a friend, lived there.
Neighbors reported hearing an argument, then gunshots being fired. When police arrived at the parking lot in the 5200 block of Stonehedge Boulevard, they found Reader wounded on a sidewalk outside an apartment building.
He was taken to a hospital in critical condition where he later died. His death has been ruled Allen County’s eighth homicide of 2010. All but one have occurred in Fort Wayne.
After interviewing witnesses at the scene, detectives identified Pufahl, who lives in the 8300 block of Norwood Court, as the shooter. Police arrested him about 12:30 p.m. at a downtown law office in the Lincoln Tower, where he was possibly preparing to turn himself in, Foster said.
He was being held without bond on a charge of murder. Police believe the shooting was the result of a weeklong feud between the two.
Pufahl has no violent criminal history in Allen County, according to court records. His only arrests were for minor consumption of alcohol in July and August 2004. He pleaded guilty to both charges.
Rachel Hicks hopes to work in the medical field someday, but the south-side resident has already received an unexpected crash course in treating bullet wounds.