Inset top: Olivia Katherine Brown (Obituary). Inset bottom: Darian Jamar Wiley (Obituary). Background: The Indianapolis, Indiana, street where the fatal shootings occurred (WTHR/YouTube).
What began as a friend making sure a woman got safely to her car after a night out in Indiana ended in a deadly ambush, prosecutors say.
Noah Brimmage, 24, is facing two murder charges in connection with the deaths of Olivia Katherine Brown, 24, and Darian Jamar Wiley, 27, according to court records reviewed by Law&Crime.
Brimmage is also charged with robbery resulting in bodily injury, three counts of battery by means of a deadly weapon, and criminal recklessness.
The killings took place on May 6, 2023, near 21st Street in Indianapolis. Authorities say Brown and Wiley had been out together before Wiley parked at his home and began walking Brown back to her vehicle.
Surveillance video obtained by local NBC affiliate WTHR showed two people suddenly trailing the pair. One neighbor told the station the suspects were “walking very quickly after them” before gunfire erupted. The “next thing you know, you hear shots. Darian is face down in the street, dead,” the neighbor said.
Brown made it to her car and got inside in an apparent attempt to flee, according to reports. She was also shot and killed before she could escape.
The double homicide rattled nearby residents and left the victims’ families waiting years for answers as they questioned whether anyone would be held accountable.
“It’s very difficult to be trapped in this space where you don’t know what’s going to happen, and it feels like there’s no justice, and the world just passes you by, and people start to forget her and Darian as well,” Brown’s sister, Hannah Carter, told regional Fox affiliate WXIN.
This week, however, authorities arrested Brimmage. It is unclear whether investigators have another suspect on their radar, too.
The probable cause affidavit filed in Brimmage’s case reportedly outlines a multitude of other crimes police suspect he was involved in around the time of the double murder. These allegations include driving a getaway car in a shooting less than a day after, setting a house and car on fire, and shooting at people escaping.
Brimmage pleaded guilty to arson and criminal recklessness and is currently serving prison time for those crimes, according to WXIN.
Brown was a therapist who “loved cats, working out, sunbathing on vacation, shopping, candy and her tattoos,” according to her obituary. “She was an avid reader and loved learning how to cook. Liv was full of life and loved helping others.”
Wiley “enjoyed music of all kind, trying to play guitar, he enjoyed golf and most of all hanging with his friends and being the light of the party,” his obituary states. “He made sure you laughed!”
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