Indy Woman Charged With 2 Counts of Attempted Murder In St John Drive-By Shooting of Wrong House
On November 14, 2023, the St. John Police Department Detective Bureau secured an arrest warrant for 57 year old Kimberly D. Woodson of Indianapolis, Indiana for two counts of attempted murder and one count of criminal recklessness, according to St John Police Chief Steve Flores.
The warrant stems from an incident that occurred in the early morning hours of October 12, 2022 where Woodson was alleged to have shot at a house in St. John during a drive-by shooting. The occupied dwelling was struck numerous times nearly striking the two individuals who were inside, Flores said.
Later that morning, detectives arrived on scene and were able to recover several spent 9mm bullets from the scene and submitted them to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department Crime Lab for future ballistic testing.
As detectives were investigating the incident, they were able to identify a suspect vehicle through the use of license plate reader (LPR) data and home surveillance videos in the area. It was determined that the vehicle was registered to Woodson.
After they gathered additional information, a search warrant was requested and later issued for cell phone data tied to Woodson. The data analytics and mapping program put that device in question in the area at the exact time of the shooting. Additionally, detectives were also able to determine that the residence that was shot at, was the wrong house as the victims had no ties to Woodson. The real target use to live nearby, but no longer resided in the area, Flores said.
On January 01, 2023 in a separate incident, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) located the suspect vehicle parked on the side of a road with its hazard lights on. The sole occupant of the vehicle was identified by IMPD officers as Kimberly D. Woodson who was subsequently arrested for public intoxication. During that incident, a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and two spent shell casing were in the vehicle with Woodson and were taken as evidence by IMPD.
St. John detectives were made aware of the incident and subsequently obtained a search warrant for the firearm and casings. The firearm was recovered and later tested by a ballistics analyst at the Lake County Sheriff’s Crime Lab. Test results indicated a match between the evidence recovered on scene and the test samples from the firearm recovered from Woodson during the incident in Indianapolis.
After gathering the above evidence, St. John detectives presented the case to the Lake County Prosecutors Office. Charges were accepted and a warrant was issued.
“Our detectives did an outstanding job on this case and I commend them for the work they put in. They left no stone unturned and followed up on every lead and collected as much evidence as they could to bring this case to a conclusion. Our hope is that our victims who were innocently inside their home, now have some closure after such a traumatic event. We want our residents to be safe and we want them to know that the St. John Police Department will do everything we can to provide that safe environment for them and their families. Finally, we would like to thank the residents in the area who provided information and/or video. We also want to thank the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Lake County Sheriff’s Department Crime Lab Unit for their assistance in this case,” Flores said.
