Staff report
Indianapolis – June 21, 2023
Three individuals have been sentenced for the killing of former Indiana University football player Chris Beaty during downtown riots in Indianapolis in 2020. The riots were a reaction to the killing by Minneapolis Police of George Floyd, and the killing of Sean Reed by Indianapolis police.
Marcus Anderson and Alijah Jones have been sentenced to 164 years in prison, while Nakeyah Shields has been sentenced to 108 years in prison for their roles in the murder and robberies that occurred on the same night.
The incident took place on May 30, 2020, when Beaty interrupted a robbery outside his apartment building at Talbot and Vermont streets, according to prosecutors. Prior to shooting Beaty, the suspects had robbed eight victims in just 19 minutes. Beaty was beaten and shot four times in the back.
Electronic messages exchanged between the suspects provided evidence linking them to the crimes. In a Facebook exchange on June 2, Jones urged Anderson to leave town, saying, “You need to lay low, get out of town or something. I just seen the report from that dude.” Anderson inquired about the identity of the person in the report, to which Jones responded, “N—- from the alley.”
Another individual, Dorian Murrell, who was believed to be the fourth suspect, was shot and killed near Market and Pennsylvania at around 2:30 a.m. on May 31, 2020, just hours after Beaty’s murder.
Authorities have not identified a fifth suspect who remains at large.
Mary Claire Molloy, a former Bloomingtonian intern, now working at the Washington Post on an internship, wrote about the crime scene the following day in downtown Indianapolis. Her account shed light on the violent events that unfolded during the riots:
