wolmerica BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A homeless man recently arrested in connection to a Bloomington murder reportedly admitted he fired a gun at the victim because he “was tired of this sh*t,” but doesn’t believe he killed the man and that a mannequin is being used for the dead body.
Scott A. Cooper, a 56-year-old transient man, was arrested this week by Bloomington Police Department officers after they were called for a death investigation. He has been preliminarily charged with murder.
Court docs show that BPD was dispatched around 6:20 a.m. Tuesday to a parking lot in the 2100 block of S. Liberty Drive for an unconscious person. The caller said she had arrived at work and saw the man lying on the ground, not moving.
Officers arrived to find a man, who has yet to be identified, on the ground in front of a blue Chrysler Town & Country van suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. He was pronounced dead on scene, BPD said.
PAST: Police say homeless suspect shot and killed man before falling asleep in nearby van
While searching the area, officers noticed that the van the man was found in front of had a bullet hole in the windshield. The way the glass was shattered indicated the shot had been fired from inside.
Officers went around the back of the van and found the rear windows covered with blankets. They began knocking on the back door and eventually made contact with a man sleeping on a cot inside.
The man, later identified as Cooper, reportedly muttered about how he had an argument the night before with a man that led to him pulling out his gun and firing a shot from inside his van. This prompted police to take him in for an interview.
While speaking with detectives at BPD headquarters, Cooper reportedly said that he had permission to park his van in the lot and sleep there. However, he claimed that the night before other people showed up in the area who weren’t allowed to park there.
When pressed for further information on what happened, Cooper reportedly told officers that he couldn’t say anything because it was “a national security issue” due to them being on federal property. Neither of the claims were true, BPD said.
Cooper went on to say that he was trying to sleep in his car when he heard and smelled people around him engaging in a sexual act he called “shangwing,” which he described as anal sex. He also said that the guy in a nearby white truck owned by the victim “kept playing around.”
RELATED: City of Bloomington planning to clear, clean homeless encampments
Detectives said Cooper wasn’t making much sense when they asked him to describe what “playing around” meant and that he kept making erratic hand gestures. He later said that the man in the white truck was staring at him and “doing this and that” without further explanation.
Eventually, Cooper allegedly admitted that he fired a shot at the man outside his van. He said that at first he pointed the handgun, which he had previously found in an Aldi’s dumpster, at the man outside and shined a laser beam on his face to get him to “leave [Cooper] the hell alone.”
When this didn’t work, Cooper said he was “tired of this sh*t” and fired one shot through his windshield as a warning. According to Cooper, the bullet was not intended to hit the man.
Cooper reportedly told officers that, after shooting the bullet, he told the man he was sorry and asked if he was okay. Cooper claimed that the man replied by saying he was “doped up” and “that he was fine.” Cooper even said he periodically checked on the man, who was still on the ground, throughout the night and kept being told he was fine.
PAST: Bloomington mayor says addressing homelessness is top priority after recent murders
When detectives told Cooper that the shot indeed did hit the man and that the man had been pronounced dead, the suspect allegedly became “very upset” and denied the claims.
“I saw the deceased,” Cooper reportedly said. “It was a mannequin.”
After this, detectives ended the interview with Cooper and placed him under arrest. He was later taken to Monroe County Jail and booked on one charge of felony murder.
BPD said officers have since received search warrants for both the blue van and the white truck. Inside the blue van, officers reportedly found a gun safe with several rounds of ammo and a Ruger pistol equipped with a laser sight.
An initial hearing in Cooper’s case is scheduled for Thursday, May 9 in Monroe County Court.
