BLOOMINGTON— A Bloomington man is back in jail on gun-related charges after being acquitted of an attempted murder charge in December 2023
Sean Marselis Rivers, 23, is charged with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, a level 5 felony, and false informing, a Class B misdemeanor, after Bloomington Police say he fired a gun several times into a wooded area on July 4, 2024.
According to court documents, on July 4, Bloomington Police officers responded to an apartment complex off Kinser Drive around 11:30 p.m. for a report of shots fired.
When police arrived, they talked with a man who said Rivers, his neighbor, come out of an apartment and fired a gun into the wooded area. The man also gave police Ring Doorbell footage that captured the incident.
Police found Rivers in his apartment, and he admitted to firing the gun, but he had put it away.
Police then looked at the security camera footage, which showed Rivers coming out of his apartment wearing the same clothes he wore when talking to them.
While walking outside towards a line of trees, Rivers allegedly could be heard saying, “I gotta wait ’till the fireworks come back on so I can pull this b–ch.”
Rivers can be heard in the video footage saying, “Pop, Pop, Pop,” and the officer listened to a sound that is common when a person checks to see if there is a round in the chamber of a gun.
According to court documents, River stopped a car length away from the line of trees, raised the gun above his head, and fired a single round through the trees towards an unoccupied apartment complex and Jackson Heights apartments.
“All of these people being put in danger by a firearm being discharged in this direction,” the officer wrote in the police report.
Rivers then walked closer to the trees and fired the gun three more times.
A child on the porch of his apartment yelled, “What are you doing?” the officer wrote.
Rivers admitted the gun police took from his apartment was the same gun he fired.
Police found two shell casings while searching Rivers, and he told police it was the shells from the rounds he shot near the tree line.
Rivers entered a not-guilty plea on July 9 in Monroe Circuit Court 5. A pretrial conference is set for August 19, 2024, at 10:15 a.m. A jury trial is set for November 25, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. The court appointed Rivers a public defender. He was released on his recognizance and is subject to case management.
A Monroe County jury acquitted Rivers of shooting a 51-year-old man in a Subway parking lot in Bloomington after an argument in July 2023. The man suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. Rivers was released from jail with the not-guilty verdict, and the charges were expunged.
