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Bloomington man arrested for murder in Lawrence County

051924_Timothy-Helton

BEDFORD, Ind. — A Bloomington man is in jail and charged with murder after a shooting in Bedford on Saturday, according to the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office (LCSO).

Timothy Brian Helton, 36, is being held without bond for murder, a felony, and attempted murder, a level 1 felony.

According to LCSO, around 10:30 a.m., deputies responded to Sunny Acres Lane for a reported shooting. When they arrived, they found two men with gunshot wounds.

One of the men, identified as 44-year-old Johnnie Grubb IV, of Bedford, died at the hopsital. The other victim, a 49-year-old man from Mitchell, was flown to a Louisville Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Investigators learned that Helton and another man, identified as Christopher Cecil, 29, had quickly left from the shooting in a vehicle and that the shooting was captured on surveillance video.

Narcotics Detectives from the Indiana State Police and Bloomington Police Department were quickly able to track Helton to a home on Mt. Gilead Road in Monroe County, where investigators surveilled the area until Helton left the home a vehicle.

LCSO says that Bloomington Police pulled over the car on the State Road 45/46 bypass, where officers arrested Helton.

At the same time, detectives executed several search warrants and collected evidence from the shooting scene, the car Helton was stopped in, the vehicle he left in from the shooting, and the home detectives saw Helton leave from.

According to LCSO, Helton and Cecil arrived to the home on Sunny Acres Lane shortly before the shooting. Investigators learned that the four men reportedly got into an argument from an on-going incident several days earlier.

LCSO says Helton allegedly pulled out a gun and shot multiple times, hitting both Grubb and the second victim.

Cecil was reportedly located in Greene County by Lawrence County Sheriff's Deputies and the Indiana State Police, and was arrested for an outstanding felony probation warrant out of Monroe County, and possession of methamphetamine in Greene County.

Lawrence County Sheriff Greg Day praised the multi-agency investigation, saying:

“The amount of work and investigation that goes into any homicide case is immense. When you couple that with having to locate and interview multiple people, track down so many persons over a three-county area, and process not just the shooting scene but also multiple vehicles and residences, there is no way to complete all needed tasks quickly and efficiently without the help of partnering agencies. We cannot thank the Indiana State Police, the Bloomington Police Department, and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office enough for their assistance. Thanks to this teamwork and the excellent work by our detectives, a very complex investigation led to the apprehension and arrest of the suspect within a very short period of time.”

Lawrence County Sheriff Greg Day

Indiana State Police Bloomington District, Indiana State Police Drug Enforcement Section, Bloomington Police Department Patrol Division, Bloomington Police Department Narcotics Detectives, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Shawswick Volunteer Fire Department, Lawrence County Fire Territory, and IU Health EMS all assisted during the shooting investigation.

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