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Inset: Deborah Benefiel (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department). Background: Intersection of West 38th Street and Georgetown Road in Indianapolis, Indiana, where Benefiel allegedly shot a man to death during a road rage incident (Google Maps).
In Indiana, a 23-year-old woman has been taken into custody following accusations that she fatally shot a man during a road rage incident. The altercation allegedly began after the man honked at her for not moving through a green light.
The suspect, Deborah Benefiel, is facing charges of murder and criminal recklessness. The victim, 21-year-old Kentrell Settles, was killed on Friday in Indianapolis, as reported by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, officers from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department were called to the scene at West 38th Street and Georgetown Road following reports of gunfire. Upon arrival, they discovered Settles inside a 2006 Chevrolet Malibu, suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. He was transported to the hospital, where he was declared deceased by medical personnel.
Investigators noted that a single bullet had pierced the rear passenger side window of the vehicle. They also found a BB gun stashed under the driver’s seat. Settles’ girlfriend, who was with him during the incident, recounted that Settles was driving her to her parents’ house. They stopped at a red light, and when it turned green, he honked at a stationary Ford SUV in front of them before driving around it.
The complaint describes the driver of the green Ford SUV, identified as a woman, as having followed them while yelling and gesticulating wildly inside her vehicle.
Settles started to pull into a nearby plaza when the woman in the SUV, later identified as Benefiel, fired one shot into the Malibu, cops wrote. The girlfriend hopped in the driver’s seat and drove the rest of the way to her parents house.
Cops were able to identify Benefiel and her vehicle, which had a cartoon dumpster fire bumper sticker and a “Good ‘illegible’ Today” bumper sticker on the SUV, through license plate readers.
Undercover officers spotted the vehicle and saw someone take off the stickers from the SUV and throw them into the trash, per the complaint. As Benefiel was being taken into custody, she told an officer the gun in question was in the apartment in a bag. Cops found a .40-caliber Glock handgun in a purse, according to the complaint.
An autopsy confirmed Settles died from a gunshot wound that entered his back and tore through his lung and heart. The manner of death was listed as homicide.
Benefiel declined to speak with detectives after her arrest. She remains in the Marion County Jail without bond. She’s slated to appear in court on Tuesday.
“This case is yet another tragic example of a simple dispute on our roadways turning deadly over what amounts to nothing. A moment of anger should not cost someone their life,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said in a statement. “This kind of senseless violence is something prosecutors and police are seeing far too often. We will continue to work together to hold those who commit senseless acts on our roadways accountable in the courtroom, but as a community we must find ways to respond to conflicts with reasonableness — not violence.”