1275 Days

911 DISPATCHER: Elkhart 9-1-1.

What is your emergency? I--

I just shot two guys.

911 DISPATCHER: Shot two people? Yes.

They broke into my house.

I'm holding a gun on the people right now.

911 DISPATCHER: Are they in the house?

Yes. They're in the house right now.

They're in the closet.

Hurry up. Please.

911 DISPATCHER: OK, don't hang up.

What's your name?

RODNEY SCOTT [ON PHONE]: Rodney Scott.

911 DISPATCHER: Rodney?

Yeah.

911 DISPATCHER: Rodney, put the gun down, OK?

RODNEY SCOTT [ON PHONE]: Get back.

911 DISPATCHER: R-- Rodney.

RODNEY SCOTT [ON PHONE]: Get back.

Brother, ain't you from across the street?

Elkhart, Indiana.

It's, um, very small.

Really small.

You don't realize it's as smallas what it is, but it is small.

Sometimes the only thing hereto do is maybe go to the bar.

And you don't want to get in trouble here.

We have quotes about Elkhart, like you come here on vacation,

and you can't leave becauseyou end up on probation.

Yeah, it's just a small town that seems

like everybody knows everybody.

I've lived a big chunk of my life

on Frances Avenue in Elkhart.

I lived with my parents growingup on the other end of Frances.

We did move out of thearea, but then I came back.

As a young teenager, a younger age,

I would be at the roller rink.

We all did the roller rink thing.

We did have a small mall not too far from here

that we would hang out at.

But there still wasn't a lot to do.

So of course we had ourparties and underage drinking

issues and things like that.

At 16, I was hanging outwith a good friend of mine.

And her brother was also close to our age.

And things led to things, and we end

up getting pregnant with Blake.

And, of course, either oneof us were quite ready.

So I stepped up to be thesingle mother that I had to be.

Went to school-- high school.

After high school, went toa part-time job every day.

And Blake did everything with me.

Blake was at my graduation.

Blake was in my senior pictures.

I remember I didn't go to my junior prom

because I was practicallya labor at the time.

It was real close to thesame time that the prom was.

I did make it to my senior prom, so that was nice.

But yeah, it was-- it wasn't easy being

a single young mother.

But I grew up with Blake.

Blake was my everything.

I've never lived without Blake.

He was my sidekick.

No matter where I was, Blake was there.

I think that's the hardest part.

It's like we've kind of grown up together.

And he's always been a bighelp, helping with his brother

and sister, too.

That day, I got a phone callthat there was an incident that

happened a few blocks from our house

on Frances Avenue statingthere was a lot of police.

So I called my son, Blake, just to see what was

going on in the neighborhood.

But I couldn't get in touch with him.

I was at school, and I got a call from Blake's

mom, Angie, freaking out.

Like, there's cops down the road.

I have a feeling it's about Blake.

Blake's not answering his phone.

I was flipping out.

I know my son.

And I know my son will pick up my phone

call at every phone call.

So I felt in my gut something was wrong.

I got to Blake's house.

There was a whole bunch copsand ambulances down the street.

I talked to an officer, but I

was denied any information, or if it

had anything to do with my son.

Somebody said five of teenagershad broke into a home,

and that my son was involved.

The next thing I find outis pretty much that two

of the kids had been shot.

One was alive, and one was dead.

I didn't know if it was my son that w--

was gone.

Which passed.

Angie left to the hospital

to see if Blake was there.

And an officer showed up and said

that we had to talked to Officer Price, which

was the homicide detective.

So at that point, we were all, oh my gosh.

Like, something reallybad has happened to Blake.

On the way to the hospital,

the police station called me.

They had Blake.

He had been shot in somebody else's home.

And so I went to the Elkhart Police station.

I got questioned quite a bit.

I just kept asking to see my son.

And at the time, he's 16.

I should've been able to see him.

They wanted me to sign thepaper to have him questioned.

And they told me that theywere charging him with murder.

The first personthat Blake called was me.

He called me, and he was bawling,

talking about how he messed up.

And he wishes that he had never done anything.

He was just sobbing.

Prosecutors announce four

men are facing murder charges.

And Judy, why are these men being charged

with murder when they didn't pull the trigger

that killed their friend?

Well, Brian, the prosecutor

made it very clear today.

Under Indiana law, when you'rein the midst of engaging

in criminal behavior and someone is killed,

murder is an available charge.

It sends a strong messageto criminals here that crime

will not be tolerated.

We live day to day.

We live day to day, you know?

You-- you fill your time out the right way.

You occupy your time with the right things

and avoid the wrong.

You know, it's prison.

You're surrounded by negative all the time.

Be a light in the dark, you know?

Be the one that's different.

It's hard.

It's been nine months already, and I'm

still waiting on my trial.

I mean, you don't get tophysically see your family,

you know?

You're talking to the only people that

are there for you over a phone.

Over a screen.

And it's tough.

You're in this big place all by yourself,

and you can't even give yourmom a hug, or your girl,

or-- nothing.

I wasn't a bad kid.

I made mistakes.

Every kid does.

Tried to play sports when I was younger.

Didn't really like it.

Didn't do it.

Come on, Blakey.

Come on, Blakey-bloo.

When I got older, started--

tried getting high, stuff like that.

Just kind of startedhanging out with, you know,

guys that were doing I was doing.

So that's all we did, you know?

Kicked it and got high.

That day, I was with Anthony, Jose, Levi, and Danzele.

I had known most for a long time.

All good friends.

I don't know why we decided we were going

to break into somebody's house.

I think it was money.

Probably to get higher.

I don't know.

We knocked on people's houses, see if anybody was home.

One house had dogs or something.

I don't remember.

And then pretty sure it wasJose that said something

about the house across thestreet, not being there a lot,

and at work.

So we knocked on that door.

Nobody picked up.

And, you know, in our heads, that meant no one was there.

At that point, Levi decided to stay back

and kind of became the lookout.

And kind of want to sayDanzele kicked the door in.

We went inside.

And we weren't in there probably a minute.

Not very long at all.

There was a wallet and a watch.

I just grabbed it.

And that's when thehomeowner had come downstairs

and began shooting.

We're all in a bedroom.

And we turned around and run back in a closet.

I didn't know I'd got shotuntil I grabbed my leg

and it started hurting.

And I realized, oh, yeah.

I was shot.