Monday, April 29, 2019

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MURDER

Monday, April 29, 2019

IDS CROWDED IN A

Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com

BASEBALL

ROOM

Six months since a man was shot dead at an IU fraternity party, no arrests have been made. By Caroline Anders anders6@iu.edu | @clineands

ALEX DERYN | IDS

Junior infielder Scotty Bradley reaches for the ball at first plate Sunday at Bart Kaufman Field. IU beat the University of Minnesota, 7-1.

3 takeaways from Indiana’s weekend win By Cameron Drummond cpdrummo@iu.edu | @cdrummond97

IU baseball continued its success in conference games this season with its fifth straight Big Ten series win of 2019. Sunday’s 7-1 home win against Minnesota, coupled with Saturday’s dramatic 7-6 walk-off win, earned IU the series win after a Friday night loss. IU is now in second place in the Big Ten Conference standings, behind Michigan by just half of a game. The Hoosiers have also won 23 of their last 29 games. 1. IU showed composure by rebounding well after another Friday night loss. For the third time in their last four conference series, the Hoosiers lost the opening game of the series Friday night. IU’s inability to earn a win with senior pitcher Pauly Milto on the mound could have deflated Coach Jeff Mercer’s team but instead the opposite happened. IU has recovered on each occasion to earn a series win, and Sunday’s comprehensive win came after its was outplayed by Minnesota for the majority of the first two games of the series. “You just have to be able to continue to compete,” Mercer said. “You could kind of feel the energy was back. You could feel that the confidence was back.” IU is now one of only four teams in the Big Ten with double-

digit conference wins. “We just responded in a terrific way,” Mercer said. “We looked inward for the solution, and not outward for a solution.” 2. Sunday’s game was IU’s last at Bart Kaufman Field for more than two weeks. With final exams this week for IU students, the team will not play a midweek game for the first time since early March. Once play resumes for IU, its next seven games will be away from Bloomington. Next weekend’s series will be at Illinois, followed by a midweek game in Lexington, Kentucky, against the University of Kentucky, then a three-game conference weekend series at Michigan. “What we have to do the next several weekends is what we did recovering this weekend,” Mercer said. “We just have to keep it inward. That’s the only way to do it.” IU’s next home game will be May 14 against the University of Louisville, part of a stretch of four straight home games to close the regular season. The Michigan series will likely loom large in the race for the Big Ten regular season championship. “We’ve talked about it from the very beginning,” Mercer said. “Find a way to win each series, you’re going to have a chance to win a Big Ten championship.” SEE BASEBALL, PAGE 5

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR This semester the Indiana Daily Student has continued to report and cover the news our community needs to know. Some news is not pleasant and is challenging to report on, but our duty to inform the public has been and always will be our driving force to tell even the most difficult stories. We reported a story containing sexual harassment allegations against a Monroe County commissioner who would later step down and withdraw from the Bloomington mayoral race. We followed the IU women’s swimming and diving team to a Big Ten victory. And we saw the IU Crimson cheerleading team earn its sixth national championship

since 2012. We have also continued efforts to learn more about our audience and what you want to know by starting the “Ask IDS” campaign. Thank you to our readers who continue to support and critique us. We are far from perfect. With your input, we can grow and learn. Traditionally this is where a goodbye would take place, but I will be continuing as editor this coming fall semester. I am excited to continue serving you and our community. Thank you again for supporting the IDS. Please continue to provide suggestions, encouragements and critiques. This wouldn’t be possible without you.

Matt Rasnic Editor-in-chief

Matt Begala Creative director

Jesse Naranjo Managing editor

Hannah Boufford Managing editor of digital

Lydia Gerike Managing editor

T

he flier for the party featured Freddy Krueger and the blood-tipped blades at his fingertips. The IU fraternity Halloween bash was branded “A Nightmare in B-Town.” At the bottom of the ad was a promise: “Security strictly enforced.” Saturday, Oct. 27, around 400 college-aged partygoers, many of them IU students, wove in and out of the Eagle’s Nest clubhouse near Lake Monroe. The rituals of a frat party held true. Tequila breath and pheromones swirled in the air. Packs of cats and devils giggled in the bathroom, sharing tubes of mascara. Alcohol surged through bloodstreams. Skeletons grinned at one another. Heels click-clacked on tile. Then, gunshots. Inside the crowded venue just after midnight, a man pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and shot one partygoer eight times. Two other men were shot once each. At the Emergency Dispatch Center, call screens began to light up. “I think someone’s dead,” one caller said. A jumble of IU students and other partygoers scattered around the body of 21-year-old KeMontie Johnson. At least 100 people were there when the gunfire began. Six months have passed since that night. There are no suspects. There have been no arrests. No one has stepped forward to identify the shooter. * * * People aren’t shot dead at IU fraternity parties. Administrators, professors and students alike can’t recall anything even close. Any kind of murder is a rarity in Bloomington, and unsolved cases are even more scarce. Over the last 10 years, the Bloomington Police Department has investigated 24 murders. Four remain active. The Indiana University Police Department has not faced a murder since 1995. The Monroe County Sheriff ’s Office handles about two each year.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ANNIE AGUIAR | IDS

KeMontie Johnson

They’re usually more clear-cut. This is different.

9. “I’m truly bless to see another 1 (party popper and confetti ball emojis).”

* * * * * * KeMontie “KJ” Johnson wasn’t an IU student, but he lived in town and worked at Kilroy’s on Kirkwood. He belonged to the Bloomington community. He was a football star at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, which he graduated from in 2016. He started a clothing company called Silent Hustle, which sells hats, sweatshirts and other apparel. He was a member of 28 Way, the party planning group that collaborated with the historically black Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity to throw “A Nightmare in B-Town.” His death rocked IU-Bloomington’s black community, which makes up about 5% of campus, according to university diversity data. Rayshawn “Ray” Walker was shot once in the head. Though he was listed in “massively critical condition” for weeks, police said he has since returned to his home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he is recovering. “Happy 20th Birthday To me…” he wrote in a Facebook post on Feb.

Police have been piecing together the night of the shooting for months. Just past midnight, they say, KeMontie found himself caught in the middle of a fight. Officers said they believe the fight was over a woman, and KeMontie was trying to break it up. As the fight escalated, members of party planning group 28 Way began clearing the venue. One of the four unarmed security guards at the event called 911. He sounded composed. “Hey,” the call began. He told the operator 10 or 15 people were fighting in the parking lot — a standard call for a standard night on the job. One IU student spoke to the Indiana Daily Student under the condition of anonymity. She fears retaliation from the shooter since there have been no arrests. She remembered primping in the bathroom with friends that night. SEE SHOOTING, PAGE 6

Lawyers say the university isn’t obligated to keep its rooms clean By Lexi Haskell ldhaskel@iu.edu | @lexi_haskell

IU is not contractually obligated to provide clean, safe or moldfree housing to its students, attorneys representing the university’s Board of Trustees have argued in a court filing. More than 20 IU students who lived on the Bloomington campus at the time are suing trustees of IU after dealing with mold this year in residence halls. The students’ attorneys claim IU broke its contract by allowing students to move into moldplagued rooms. They also allege a number of wrongdoings, including negligence, fraud and deception. But IU’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing the students have no case. “The written contractual terms and conditions do not state that Indiana University is contractually obligated to provide dormitories that are either free from mold, ‘suitable and ready for inhabitation,’ or ‘clean, safe, and habitable,’” IU’s attorneys wrote in a court filing. Indiana law outlines landlord responsibilities such as maintaining premises that are in “safe, clean, and habitable condition.” However, educational institutions are exempt from these statutes. Whether the university still has

COURTESY PHOTO

More than 20 IU students are suing the trustees of IU after dealing with mold last semester in residence halls across campus. The university’s Board of Trustees’ attorneys have argued IU has no obligation to provide mold-free housing to students.

an implied expectation to keep its residence halls clean could be argued in court. When students discovered mold in Foster and McNutt quads last semester, those living in the residence halls received compensation totaling more than $7.3 million. IU’s attorneys also cite an Indiana law that caps the amount a state entity can be made to pay for wrongdoing at $5 million. The $7.3 million, IU’s attorneys argue, is already more than the university could be held liable for under the law.

* * * Thousands of students have dealt with the fallout of mold on campus. They all started the same. They visited IU and fell in love with its limestone buildings and Herman B Wells lore. As August approached, they packed up their bedrooms and said goodbye to hometown friends. And then they showed up, leaving childhood behind. This was what they were waiting for. But then the asthmatic had SEE MOLD, PAGE 5


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