Suspect on video at hotel, police say | Police/Fire

Surveillance video from the Rodeway Inn shows Thomas J. Jackson knocking on the door to his room and then backing away, pointing a gun as if he’s waiting for someone to answer.

When no one opens the door, he goes to the front office to get a key. He returns to open the door and leaves shortly with a dog.

Left behind that Sunday, about 4 a.m. Aug. 9, was the victim, 19-year-old Angel May Carter, shot in the neck and bleeding just outside the door. 

Jackson, 40, arrested by homicide detectives and other law enforcement during a traffic stop Thursday afternoon after he left a home on North Wells Street, was charged Friday with murder and using a firearm to commit an offense. He was being held without bail at the Allen County Jail. 

According to a probable cause affidavit written by Fort Wayne Police Department homicide Detective Roy Sutphin, a witness told Detective Lorna Russell that she’d heard an argument, then a gunshot and someone yell “you (expletive) up.” 

Surveillance video shows Jackson leave with the dog, followed by the victim. Michael Carter, Angel May’s father, said Friday that the dog was a puppy named Oreo and belonged to his daughter.

Detective Sgt. Tim Hughes, head of FWPD homicide, called the shooting death “brutal and cold-blooded.” 

On the video, Carter is seen falling to the ground where police found her while Jackson stands near her with a gun in his hand. No one else is seen leaving the room, court documents said. 

Jackson walks to the west and then turns south into a crossover breezeway, court records said. He wasn’t seen until Thursday. 

During the investigation, a female witness told Detective Aaron Johnson that the gun came from another room at the inn. Jackson had apparently gone into that room to get the gun belonging to a “known associate” of his. 

That known associate told the gun owner that Jackson had used his gun to commit the crime, court documents said. 

Jackson has a court hearing Monday.  

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