Sullivan Hardware and Garden shooter found guilty

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Marqueses Tipton was found guilty on all three counts for a road rage shooting that hit a Sullivan Hardware and Garden employee in the head.

Tuesday, Tipton was found guilty of aggravated battery and two counts of criminal recklessness.

Mar. 20, 2023, Tipton fired multiple shots after a car crash near a Shell gas station on East 71st Street and North Keystone Avenue.

After all the drivers pulled into the Shell gas station parking lot, court documents say Tipton saw another driver picking up a “black, dark object”, which he thought to be a gun.

Then, Tipton stepped into the road and fired shots at a silver SUV as it drove off.

Surveillance video showed that the SUV that was involved in the accident was not the one that Tipton fired at. Inside the SUV that was shot at, the driver told her six-year-old daughter to “get down,” court documents say.

Tipton followed the person he shot at, but eventually returned to the scene where he was arrested by police. Later, he told police that his two children, two years old and nine years old, with him during the incident.

64-year-old Susan Warden was hit in her left eye by one of the bullets, which flew through the wall of the Yellow House section of Sullivan Hardware and Garden. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but survived.

“The defendant’s inexcusable actions reflect the severity of the many consequences of gun violence— not only did they forever impact the victim’s life but the surrounding community who live, shop, and drive by that intersection every day. This afternoon, the victim courageously shared her story and helped secure today’s guilty verdict for the prosecution,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said in a release.

Tipton’s sentencing is scheduled for April 4, 2025.

This story was updated with new information from the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.