Michigan City officials say they charged the wrong person with the Aug. 3 fatal shooting outside Matey's Bar and Restaurant near the city's popular lakefront and zoo.
The shooting in question,left 25-year-old LaPorte resident Dante Sellers dead.
It appears Sellers had been involved in an argument while at Matey's and was shot as he walked to his vehicle parked nearby.
Officers found Sellers in a parking lot entrance across the street from the bar and discovered he sustained a gunshot wound, police said. Life-saving measures were started, and Sellers was first taken to a local hospital and then to the UChicago Medicine hospital for advanced care.
Following the shooting, 27-year-old Michigan City local, Cevin Crawford,was charged on Aug. 6. based on eyewitness accounts and a video appearing to show a muzzle flash from a gun being pointed by Crawford, according to the prosecution's motion to dismiss.
However, police received more video evidence that, when slowed down from a different angle, revealed another person came from the north side of Crawford and fired a gun at the victim.
The motion stated, "This exculpatory evidence shows that Cevin Crawford was not the shooter.”
Records show that the murder charge against Crawford was dismissed this week by LaPorte County Superior Court Judge Jaime Oss.
Michigan City Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch said in the wake of the shooting gun violence has escalated in the city and is out of control.
