Investigators looking into surveillance cameras following fatal drive-by shooting

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - As cars drive through the busy intersection of Eddy Street and Jefferson Boulevard Wednesday, balloons and bears sit on the southeast corner, in front of the very same tree police say a woman crashed into after being shot just before 9 p.m. Tuesday night.

“When I heard about the shooting this morning, immediately my mind went back to last year and I’m thinking...we’re going down the same path,” South Bend native James Williams says.

It is a path that investigators say led to the death of 28-year-old Chanel Neal of South Bend, and sent a male passenger to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

“Now here’s a young lady and a young man; One life is lost, but the person who actually committed the shooting, their lives have also been endangered.”

County Metro Homicide say it’s too early to tell if the shooting was targeted or unintentional.

However, investigators are looking into surveillance cameras posted on a building nearby that may have caught it all on camera.

But as South Bend pastor James Williams says, regardless of the motive...it’s inexcusable.

“That bullet could have missed that person and hit an innocent person. Basically, all of them are innocent. But we don’t think how it impacts the entire community,” Williams says.

Williams says he believes part of the reason behind a recent uptick in violence are ongoing feuds on social media, paired with the stress that comes with a pandemic.

“We’re coming out of a stressful situation with this virus. So all that we have in our hands, our way of communicating is through the media, the Facebook, texting, the different apps, but there is very little physical-social,” Williams says.

Moving forward, Williams says the community must come together before another life is lost.

“We have an opportunity to bring the people together in an area where they can actually express how they really feel. To me, that would make a big difference in the prevention of this ongoing violence,” Williams says.

So far, no arrests have been made and investigators have yet to name any suspect(s).

Anyone with information regarding last night’s shooting is asked to contact County Metro Homicide at 574-235-5009 or Michiana Crime Stoppers at 574-288-STOP.

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