Shots fired at ‘Donnie Baker’ of ‘The Bob & Tom Show’; IMPD on the case
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Police are investigating after shots were fired at a well-known radio personality.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was called at 2 a.m. Sunday to the 8000 block of North Shadeland Avenue. That’s a commercial area on the city’s northeast side.
Officers arrived to find Ronald Sexton, who said he had been shot at. He is known as “Donnie Baker,” a comedian and recurring character on Westwood One’s “The Bob & Tom Show.”
Detectives do not believe the shooting was a random act, IMPD Public Information Officer Samone Burris said in a statement Tuesday.
The police report said the suspect was identified, but a name for the suspect was not listed. Burris says the department does not identify potential suspects in its cases.
Sexton says he’s lucky to be alive after the man he calls his girlfriend’s ex-partner surprisingly shot up his rental car while he was driving it early Sunday.
“It was just a rapid-fire, a barrage of gunfire, and I’m still picking glass out of my scalp and my ear today, so I’m very lucky,” Sexton said.
According to police, the shooting happened near the Lowe’s Home Improvement store on Shadeland Avenue and adjacent to I-69.
“It was stunning, but I was able to look over. I saw exactly who it was. I recognized who it was,” Sexton said. “There’s no doubt in my mind who is to blame for this, and my understanding is he’s still on the loose so they’re trying to track him down at present.”
Sexton says there were several bullet holes in the car and that Sunday’s confrontation wasn’t his first with the suspect. He says the same man last year assaulted him while he was making an appearance for a “Bob & Tom” golf outing.
“In that particular case, there was no gun involved, but I thought there was going to be because he had a bandana that he pulled over his face. I thought it was going to be the classic one, two, three, pop, kill me, kill himself, but luckily that didn’t happen,” Sexton said. “I just never thought in a million years that it would escalate to somebody risking to put their life in jail, put somebody else in a grave, and go away to prison. I never thought that it would ever, ever come to that.”
Sexton has a Saturday show set for Shelbyville, a city that’s a 40-minute drive southeast of downtown Indianapolis, but he says he’s confident security or police will have caught the shooter by that time.
“I’ve gotten so many text messages and well wishes from so many people and family and friends and fans, and I can’t thank them enough,” Sexton said.
Anyone with information on the shooting, or who has video from between 1:44 a.m. and 1:55 a.m. on Sunday between the 8000 and 8200 block of North Shadeland Avenue, was asked to contact Detective Ryan Gootee by email at Ryan.Gootee@indy.gov.
