Greenwood man charged with murdering brother’s fiancee, shooting at police
GREENWOOD, Ind. (WISH) — Formal charges were filed Friday against a Greenwood man accused of murdering his brother’s fiancée then shooting at a police officer Monday morning.
Randy Sutt, 43, was charged with murder and attempted murder in connection to the shootings that happened Monday morning at a home in the 300 block of Legacy Boulevard.
Sutt told a Greenwood detective he shot 55-year-old Cecelia Babcock, who was engaged to his brother and who lived with the two brothers, after she and his brother made fun of Randy for asking for a Klonopin pill, court documents say.
Klonopin is a brand name of clonazepam, a medicine prescribed to treat certain kinds of seizures and to relieve panic attacks. It can be habit-forming, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Sutt was talking to his brother and Babcock around 8 a.m. Monday in the home they all shared and asked his brother for Klonopin pill because he had “his own prescription for Klonopin, but he had recently run out, and this was the only reason he was asking,” he told a police detective. He said his brother told him he wasn’t going to give him any, and his brother and Babcock began making fun of him and referring to Sutt as an addict, court documents say.
Sutt said his brother and Babcock went upstairs to their rooms, but “he knew Cecelia was still talking about him, and this was making him very upset.” He also told the detective he had known Babcock for about seven years and they had never gotten along, court documents say.
According to court documents, Sutt said he was so mad he remembered sending a text to his brother that said “he was going to shoot her,” and said it was not the first time he had mentioned wanting to shoot her. Sutt told the detective he was “tired of her s–t.”
Sutt then got a gun out of the safe in his bedroom and found Babcock in her bathroom, shot her one time and left. He told the detective he remembered Babcock having a knife in the bathroom with her; police did not locate a knife in the bathroom, according to court documents.
Sutt then went downstairs and called 911, telling dispatch he had shot someone, he told the detective in court documents.
Officers with the Greenwood Police Department responded around 10:30 a.m. Friday to the home. A group of officers arrived at the scene and a man, later determined not to be the suspect or his brother, came out of the home. As police began setting up a perimeter around the home, one officer noticed an armed man, later identified as Sutt, right outside the home. The officer gave loud verbal commands for him to drop the handgun, but Sutt fired at him. The officer returned fire and fell while retreating around the corner of the home. He was pulled to safety by other officers, and Sutt went back into the home, the detective said in court documents. He said he confirmed the series of events based on footage from an officer’s body-worn camera.
Another officer noticed movement inside after that, “including someone with a handgun standing near” a window, and fired multiple rounds into the window, court documents say.
Meanwhile, Sutt called emergency dispatch and was put on the phone with a negotiator, who convinced Sutt to leave his gun inside the house and come outside, where he was taken into custody.
Officers then went inside the house and found Babcock in the bathroom. She was taken to IU Health Methodist Hospital in critical condition and on life support. She died of a gunshot wound to the head later that evening, court documents say.
Sutt on Friday remained in the Johnson County Jail. No initial hearing was listed for him in court records.
