Fifteen-year-old Latajohne Phillips, a freshman football player at Muncie Central High School known to family as Tay, was found with multiple gunshot wounds at the Creekside Apartments (also called the Latitude Apartments) on the city’s northeast side on August 14, 2024. Emergency crews took him to a hospital, where he later died. Phillips had moved to Muncie to live with family after his mother’s death.

Investigators say surveillance footage and witness accounts showed six people running from the scene and entering an apartment at the nearby Elgin Manor complex. That apartment, belonging to 19-year-old Daisha Eckford, reportedly contained multiple firearms, ammunition, and clothing matching what witnesses described. Eckford told police the group had gone out to make a play before shots were heard.

Six people were arrested. Charges filed by the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office included murder with a firearm enhancement, robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, conspiracy to commit robbery, and obstruction of justice against various defendants: 16-year-old K-shaun English, 17-year-old Robert Graham, 19-year-old Daisha Eckford, 19-year-old Ricky Nathan, a 14-year-old, and 21-year-old Atravian Nathan. Atravian Nathan reportedly said the group went to the complex to trade guns and that he fled when he heard gunfire.

Anyone who knew Latajohne Phillips or who has information about what happened that night is asked to share what they know.