On the morning of January 16, 2017, police in Lafayette, Indiana, responded to a distress call that brought them to a residence in the 1600 block of Center Street. Upon their arrival around 6:00 a.m., officers entered an apartment to discover 52-year-old John Lawrence Byler suffering from a severe gunshot wound. Emergency medical personnel were immediately summoned to the scene and transported him to a nearby hospital in hopes of saving his life.
Despite their efforts, he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the facility, launching a homicide investigation into the events that transpired inside the home.
Detectives began processing the scene, collecting evidence that pointed toward a violent encounter rather than a random act. The investigation quickly gathered momentum as authorities pieced together the circumstances surrounding the shooting. By examining the facts and following leads generated in the days immediately following the incident, police were able to identify individuals they believed were responsible for the fatal attack. The nature of the crime led investigators to classify the case as a homicide, with robbery identified as a contributing motive.
Four days after the shooting, on the morning of January 20, 2017, the Lafayette Police Department executed the arrests of two men in connection with the death. Wesley Andrew Hampton, aged 39, and Aarron Christopher Vance, aged 35, both residents of Lafayette, were taken into custody. Authorities formally accused the pair of Murder and Robbery with a Deadly Weapon. Following their apprehension, both suspects were booked into the Tippecanoe County Jail, and the case was subsequently turned over to the prosecutor’s office for the formal filing of charges.
