Marion mourns after shooting death of 17-year-old high school baseball player

MARION, Ind.  – A 17-year-old is dead, an 18-year-old is in jail and a community is mourning following a deadly shooting this week in Marion.

Since he was a boy, 17-year-old Julio Matamoros practiced the fundamentals of baseball and loved the game.

Just last week, a series of pictures were taken by DCM Photography Studio of the victim, known as Lio, enjoying his time on the diamond.

“He’s always the played the game in a way you could tell he loved it and he’s certainly going to be missed,” said Trevor Blake.

Blake met Lio coaching youth baseball. He remembers Lio’s big smile and outgoing nature.

“When I met him, he just grew on me and I think he affected everybody that way,” said Blake.  “He had a personality that would draw you to him.”

Marion police were called to a parking lot around 6:50 p.m. on Monday in the 1500 block of S. Western Avenue and found the teenager with a gunshot wound to the chest.

According to police, the deadly shooting took place after the suspect arranged to meet the victim to buy some vape cartridges.

That sale quickly turned violent and left a community devastated after the young victim died on Tuesday.

Before he died, the 17-year-old quickly told officers exactly what happened.

“At the time, he told police that a white person named Cordel had shot him,” said Marion Police Deputy Chief Mark Stefanatos.

Police said a white Pontiac also sped away from the scene. Police reportedly found that vehicle a short time later, parked near an apartment complex in the 500 block of East 3rd Street.

That information helped police track down and arrest 18-year-old Cordel Bice a few hours after the fatal shooting.

“It’s just a sad situation. A young man’s life which hadn’t even gotten started and is now gone because of a ridiculous act that never had to happen,” said Stefanatos.

The young victim went to school at Mississinewa High School.

A post by the school said they were offering counseling to students and staff struggling to make sense of the violence.

“It doesn’t make any sense and that’s what’s hardest about it. My kids are asking how could this happen? I don’t have those answers. This one doesn’t make sense to any of us,” said Blake.

The suspect was initially arrested for robbery and attempted murder.

That charge will now be elevated to murder and the suspect will be held without bond pending trial.