Suspect charged with shooting 2 judges, accused accomplice arrested after SWAT standoff
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An hourslong SWAT standoff ended Saturday night with the arrest of an Indianapolis man charged with shooting two Clark County judges.
Brandon Kaiser, 41, barricaded himself in his Wallace Avenue house on the city’s east side for more than three hours and repeatedly ignored detectives’ PA announcements, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained Tuesday by News 8.
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The standoff ended “peacefully” around 7 p.m. when Kaiser exited the house, police said.
Detectives located his accused accomplice and neighbor, 23-year-old Alfredo Vazquez, less than two miles from Kaiser’s residence.
Kaiser is charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and carrying a handgun without a license.
Vazquez is charged with assisting a criminal.
The two were booked Sunday into Marion County Jail, according to online jail records.
“We have crime all the time around here but this is crazy,” said Shawn Shelton, an east side resident who watched the standoff with his nephew.
More than a dozen neighbors gathered across the street from the police department’s incident command vehicle and waited for developments.
As the afternoon dragged on and medics joined first responders on scene, one neighbor arrived with a pan of fried chicken. He fed fellow spectators too engrossed in watching the standoff to leave the scene for dinner.
“Now we got chicken and everything else going on,” said Shelton. “Just watching and eating.”
Detectives discovered a loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun under a mattress while executing search warrants at Vazquez and Kaiser’s adjacent houses in the 2100 block of Wallace Avenue, according to charging documents.
Shell casings and a bullet recovered from the May 1 shooting scene came from a 9mm weapon, officials said.
Clips of surveillance footage obtained by News 8 show two men in a dark blue SUV pulling into the parking lot of White Castle on South Street in downtown Indianapolis, exiting their vehicle and walking toward three people standing outside the restaurant.
Detectives identified the two men in the SUV as Vazquez and Kaiser after studying surveillance footage recorded the same night at a downtown bar, credit card transactions and BMV photos.
Two people in the group outside White Castle were Clark Circuit judges Andrew Adams and Brad Jacobs, officials said.
The extended video provided by White Castle shows Vazquez and Kaiser engaging in a fight with Adams and Jacobs, according to the probable cause affidavit.
“(Vazquez) stated he stopped fighting because he hit and beat the male too much and felt the male had enough,” the document states. “The video shows (Vazquez) attacking… Jacobs, forcing Jacobs backwards on top of a cement trash can.”
Kaiser was recorded grabbing a gun tucked in his waistband and shooting Adams in the stomach, according to detectives who reviewed the footage.
“Jacobs is then seen pushing upright against (Vazquez),” the affidavit states. “(Vazquez) was holding on to Jacobs when (Kaiser) walked up to Jacobs and shot him in the chest. Jacobs then fell to the ground onto his back and, while (Vazquez) held him down, (Kaiser) placed the barrel to Jacobs’ center chest and shot him a second time.”
Vazquez and Kaiser are accused of fleeing the scene without calling 911.
During an interview with detectives, Vazquez said he and Kaiser did not know the two Clark County judges.
Vazquez and Kaiser were “kicked out of Kilroy’s,” a bar on South Meridian Street, before their trip to White Castle, according to a detective who interviewed the bar’s assistant manager.
It remained unclear Tuesday night what sparked the parking lot altercation.
“We’re pretty sure that this had nothing to do with their [judicial] profession,” Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel said Tuesday. “We’re ecstatic that the two suspects have been arrested and they’re now in custody.”
Attorneys representing Vazquez and Kaiser could not be reached for comment.
Larry Wilder, an attorney representing Jacobs and Adams, called the aftermath of the arrests an “emotional time.”
“Both Judge Jacobs and Adams continue to improve,” Wilder said in a statement to News 8. “They are focused on their recovery. The announcement of the arrest of the two defendants has given the families a degree of relief and a feeling of safety. They all understand that the process will be lengthy but they are prepared.”
