Man killed in random downtown attack beloved member of Indianapolis Convention Center staff

Alan Gosnell’s last day on Earth started like most others during the past seven years.

He was working his noon to 8 p.m. shift as a foreman of the sound and light division at the Indianapolis Convention Center. On Sept 11, 2024, he was scheduled to complete additional maintenance and cleaning jobs as the convention center’s team was putting on the final touches for the Indiana Wellness Summit expected to start the following day.

Nearing the end of the day, he had completed much of his work and decided to take a break inside the sound and light division office with a coworker.

This is where Gosnell first encountered Brian Fulton.

Gosnell didn’t know Fulton, according to court documents, and when Fulton approached the office, Gosnell did not interact or speak with him, witnesses told police.

The man walked away before Gosnell left the office to check on equipment in the area. That’s when the attack happened. Inside a hallway on the second floor of the convention center, Gosnell would draw his last breath.

Fulton was primarily charged with murder, but as of Monday, he had not formally been charged.

This unwarranted attack left many in the city questioning downtown’s safety, but more importantly, it has left Gosnell’s family with heartbreaking questions that may never receive answers.

Who was Alan Gosnell?

To many, Gosnell was known as “Big Al,” a kind man who would help anyone.

“I don’t know why this guy would do something (to him),” said John Gosnell. “My brother would never do anything to hurt anybody… He was just a big Teddy Bear.”

There were only a few things in this world that Alan Gosnell loved more than his passion for audio and lighting visuals and that was his family.

He would take any opportunity allotted to him to share stories about his grandchild and how excited he was to meet his next grandchild due later this year.

That opportunity was stolen.

Indiana Convention Center attack

Many in the community are still trying to understand what motivated Fulton to allegedly kill Gosnell inside the Indianapolis Convention Center on Sept. 11, 2024.

An employee of the convention center told police that Fulton approached her acting “weird” and kept referencing the roof. Unsure of what Fulton was asking, she led him to the light and sound office.

Fulton continued asking nonsensical questions about the roof before leaving the doorway, according to court documents. Then Gosnell left the office to check the equipment.

Soon after multiple people heard Gosnell screaming for Fulton to stop attacking him, according to court documents.

Witnesses saw Gosnell being beaten before he was strangled with “some kind of phone charge cable,” according to court documents.

“He got what he deserved,” a witness heard Fulton say before leaving the Indiana Convention Center, perplexing those who know him.

“Such a tragedy, I worked with (Gosnell) at the Indiana Convention Center, he was a very nice guy, such a senseless killing,” Bernadette Billerman-Mooney said on social media.

Police detained Fulton about two blocks from the convention center.

After being arrested, Fulton told detectives he was military and CIA and “had just neutralized an international terrorist nuclear threat.” When asked to elaborate on his statement, Fulton told detectives he would not say more and wanted a lawyer.

‘He was a one-of-a-kind person’

After reading about how his brother was killed, John Gosnell could not understand why Fulton would do this to his brother.

Unlike other family members who served in the military, Alan Gosnell followed his passion for audio and visual arts early in life and decided to go to college.

Gosnell moved to Arizona and attended Phoenix Institute of Technology as a young adult, where he learned the ins and outs of being an audio and visual stagehand.

He followed his passion for nearly three decades and traveled the country as a stagehand operating the lighting and audio for countless monster truck shows and worked with Markey’s an Indianapolis audiovisual equipment rental service before joining the convention center staff.

“He was a one-of-a-kind person,” John Gosnell said.

Everyone knew Gosnell as ‘Big Al’, many believed it was due to his size, but his brother revealed that the nickname stemmed from a childhood joke.

“When we were growing up he was about 5 foot 4 and weighed about 110 pounds,” his brother said. “We called him ‘Big Al’ because it was kind of an opposite thing. And then in his senior year, he grew to 5 foot 11.”

Growing up Alan Gosnell loved Indiana University basketball and followed Notre Dame football religiously. But after his son started attending Purdue University, he grew to love the Boilermakers.

Beyond his immediate family, many of his fellow union workers and members of his stagehand family shared the devastation of Gosnell’s death.

“Al Gosnell, a beloved employee of the Capital Improvement Board, lost his life … in a senseless act of violence.  Al worked with us for more than 10 years and was a great friend to his colleagues. Our CIB family mourns his loss, and we hold his family in our hearts,” said Monica Brase, spokesperson for the Indiana Convention Center.

The killing raised questions among residents about the safety of downtown Indianapolis and security at the Convention Center, which draws people to the city year-round.

Andy Mallon, executive director of the Indianapolis’s Capital Improvement Board, addressed security concerns at last Thursday’s City-County Council committee meeting.

At the time Gosnell was killed the convention center had 24-hour security in place and a uniformed Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer was on the same floor, Mallon said.

Still, Mallon said he appreciated being “held accountable” and would review what more could be done to increase safety at the Convention Center.

Contact IndyStar reporter Noe Padilla at npadilla@indystar.com.