FORT WAYNE – Things were quiet in the Shorewood housing addition just before noon Wednesday.
Only a few people were out in the suburban neighborhood – a kid was mowing a lawn, a few homeowners were gardening or pulling weeds and a few others were in cars driving by all the homes with closed garage doors.
A television news truck parked in front of a house on White Shell Drive and a uniformed police officer who slowly patrolled the neighborhood in an unmarked SUV – waving to many he passed – were the only signs a shooting took place there the day before.
Fort Wayne police have released a few more details in the shooting of attorney David J. Kuker – who found a man inside his garage Tuesday morning.
But still absent is a description of the gunman and a reason he pulled the trigger.
“We’re investigating some leads, but one of the biggest pieces we have is that we believe this is an isolated incident,” said officer Raquel Foster, spokeswoman for the police department.
Investigators now believe that whoever shot Kuker inside the garage of his home at 9409 White Shell Drive fled south of the house to a pond in the neighborhood.
The shooter then ran through the northeast edge of the pond and continued south around the pond, where it appears he turned west and ran west or southwest.
From there, the shooter possibly got into a waiting car at the end of a cul-de-sac or continued south across Illinois Road.
Police are asking anyone who saw anything suspicious or even remotely unusual in the neighborhood between 8 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. Tuesday to call them at 427-1222 or Crime Stoppers at 436-7867.
Kuker, 45, who practices corporate law for Faegre Baker Daniels, initially encountered the man inside his garage about 8:15 a.m. He has not been able to give police a description of the shooter – other than saying he did not know him – because he said the man sprayed some sort of chemical substance in his eyes.
The man shot Kuker at least once in the shoulder with a handgun.
Kuker then made it outside his home where a neighbor heard him calling for help. The neighbor called 911 while an Allen County sheriff’s officer who had parked his squad car in his driveway across the street from Kuker’s home just before the shooting came to help.
Medics took Kuker to a hospital in serious condition.
