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19-year-old arrested in connection with murder of man found shot to death in car

Posted at 7:58 PM, Aug 30, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-30 22:00:15-04

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis police apprehended a 19-year-old murder suspect Wednesday in connection with the fatal shooting of Tyson Herring earlier this month.

Alfonso Lavon Sargent, 19, was formally charged with Herring’s murder on Aug. 10, but wasn’t caught until this week.

Police found 23-year-old Tyson Herring slumped  over in the driver’s seat of a running car on Aug. 2 in the 3100 block of North Keystone Avenue.

Herring had been shot multiple times. An autopsy determined two of those bullets struck him in the neck, with one traveling through his spinal cord and the other entering his skull.

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In the driver’s side door and the center console of the vehicle, police found bags of suspected marijuana and cocaine. Police also found spent .380-caliber cartridge casings on the ground near the car.

Witnesses told police they saw a man running from the scene, and that he dropped a silver handgun as he ran. The gun was eventually located and determined the be a Walther PPK/S with a magazine of .380-caliber bullets loaded in the gun.

Between witness descriptions and images caught by a city-operated camera, police identified the suspect as 19-year-old Alfonso “Soobie” Sargent.

MAP | 2017 Indianapolis Homicides

After he was identified, detectives found social media posts showing Sargent and Herring together on the day of Herring’s murder.

Marion County Jail records show Sargent has been arrested five times in the past year, most recently in November 2016 on charges of robbery and carrying a handgun without a license. Sargent served more than seven months in jail following that arrest and was released on June 29.

Sargent was scheduled for a preliminary hearing before a Marion County judge Thursday morning.

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