Metro Homicide investigates deadly shooting in South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Families in a quiet South Bend neighborhood are looking for answers after their neighbor was shot and killed inside his home Tuesday morning.

“It’s an elderly neighborhood,” said Stephanie Samuels, who lives down the road from the crime scene. “There’s a few young families that are just now starting to move in to the neighborhood because it is such a close-knit neighborhood.”

The close-knit community on North Varsity Drive became a crime scene early Tuesday morning.

Police showed up just after 4 a.m. for a call of shots fired.

In a press release sent out Tuesday afternoon, the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit said Keith Myers, 42, had been shot multiple times inside a home on the 100 block of N. Varsity Drive. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

“Everybody kind of looks out for each other,” Samuels said of the neighborhood. “We always kind of touch base with the neighbors around us. If they ever need anything, we’re always there to help out.”

Samuels has lived on N. Varsity Drive for 11 years.

She said before Tuesday’s shooting, a couple car break-ins were the most crime she and her family had ever dealt with in the area.

Investigators spent more than 13 hours on Tuesday thoroughly searching the taped off property, 122 N. Varsity Drive, for evidence.

In the early evening, several large paper bags were carried out of the home and placed in Metro Homicide’s mobile command unit.

Pastor Carl Hetler was walking around the scene and talking with neighbors throughout the day as part of an on-site prayer team.

“We’re out here with our prayer team because we know, whenever there’s something tragic, people are very upset,” said Hetler, who is the associate pastor at nearby Evangel Heights United Methodist Church. “So we want to be able to come out and pray for the residents, pray for peace, pray for those people who have been affected by this violence, but then also pray for justice.”

People posted photos of a Keith Myers on Facebook on Tuesday with captions that said ‘rest in heaven,’ and some saying that his death didn’t make sense.

Samuels said she doesn’t know the family who lives in house 122 well, but she said the shooting still hits close to home.

“We had to literally get the kids in the car this morning and not even direct their attention to anything down the street because then they’re going to start asking questions,” she said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Metro Homicide said no arrests had been made.

But the unit said several witnesses have already been interviewed as part of an active and ongoing investigation.

An autopsy of Myers is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

If you have any information about this case, please contact CMHU at 574-235-5009 or Crime Stoppers at 574-288-STOP.