Detective's account provides details of fatal shooting in westside parking lot

At first, police officers thought a man found lying dead in a Bloomington parking lot just before dawn Tuesday might have been the victim of a fatal traffic accident.

A woman arriving at work at 6:20 a.m. found the body and thought he might have been hit by a vehicle.

But when Bloomington Police Detective Joe Henry noticed a dark stain on the front of the man’s shirt, he realized the victim had been shot once in the chest.

A blue 2006 Chrysler Town & Country minivan parked a few feet west of the body had a hole in the windshield from a bullet that investigators noticed had been fired from inside the vehicle, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case.

The van was parked 2100 block of South Liberty Drive, in the parking lot near Landmark Treatment Center and Belle Tire. A pickup truck belonging to the victim, whom the coroner has not yet identified, was parked nearby.

Officers knocked on the van’s sliding side door and woke up 56-year-old Scott A. Cooper, who was asleep inside. The transient man reportedly told a patrol officer “he had a brief verbal argument with someone, pulled out his firearm and fired it” from inside his van that morning, the affidavit said.

They took him to the police station to be interviewed, where Cooper gave odd and conflicting statements. He claimed the bullet he fired didn’t hit anyone. He said the man lying on the ground in front of his van replied he was all right when Cooper asked if he was OK.

Police said a search of Cooper’s van turned up a locked safe that contained a .380-caliber Ruger handgun. They reported finding a shell casing from a bullet like three the gun was loaded with near a curb by Cooper’s van.

Cooper told police he had found the gun in a trash dumpster at the Aldi store on Liberty Drive. He said he kept it to provide security for himself and others who stay in their vehicles overnight in the parking lot. He’s being held at the Monroe County Jail. A May 9 initial hearing was scheduled.

Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.