In the summer of 2018, the life of 26-year-old Dernail Ivory Brown was tragically cut short in Fort Wayne, Indiana. On June 28th, police responded to a call just after midnight and discovered Brown on a sidewalk near the intersection of Fourth and Harrison streets, suffering from gunshot wounds. He was rushed to a local hospital but ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
The violence of that night had not yet fully revealed its toll.
As officers were investigating the scene where Dernail was found, they were alerted to a car crash just a few blocks away at Fourth and Wells streets. Inside the vehicle, which had struck a parked car, were two other men who had also been shot. Twenty-five-year-old Deshaun Devon Richards was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the head, and 28-year-old Breondon Devon Pinkston was transported to a hospital where he, too, died from his injuries. The grim discovery turned a single shooting into a triple homicide investigation that would leave a community shaken and searching for answers.
For nearly five years, the case of the three slain men remained a painful, unsolved chapter for their families and the city of Fort Wayne. The investigation, however, was ongoing. In January 2023, a breakthrough was announced with the arrest of 29-year-old Jacquail Belcher. He was taken into custody and charged with three counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Dernail Ivory Brown, Deshaun Devon Richards, and Breondon Devon Pinkston. The arrest brought a renewed sense of hope for justice for the three men whose lives were so violently ended that June night.
