A parking garage. Broad daylight. A kid with a gun. That is how Brett Scrogham’s life ended at 23, just weeks after he walked across the graduation stage at Indiana University. Now, the 14-year-old accused of pulling the trigger might face the rest of his life behind adult bars. Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears made it official on Friday. He wants the boy tried as an adult.
It is standard Indiana protocol for crimes this heinous. The unnamed young teen, arrested Wednesday, faces heavy charges: felony murder, armed robbery, and dangerous possession of a firearm. He allegedly gunned down Scrogham on May 28. The victim was sitting in his car in a downtown Indianapolis parking structure, simply trying to meet his family for a minor league baseball game. Instead, he met a bullet. He died later at a local hospital.
A judge will decide the boy’s fate. Juvenile court or adult prison? The system will grind on. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Tanya Terry called the arrest significant but lamented the waste of two young lives. One is gone forever. The other is likely ruined.
Scrogham was a standout. He graduated in the top 100 of his class at the IU Kelley School of Business and had just started working as a property development analyst. Friends described him as a devout Christian, incredibly kind, and brilliant. He was the kind of person this city desperately needs. Instead, he became another statistic in a random act of senseless violence.
