Updated: Woody Arrested, Charged in Shootings; Second Victim On Life Support
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Brandon Thomas Woody has been charged with murder and attempted murder after a woman identified him as the man who shot her and fatally shot her boyfriend in Syracuse Thursday. Woody, 22, of 605 W. North St., Syracuse, is charged in the shooting death of Joshua R. Knisley and the shooting of Tara Thornburg at her Main Street home early Thursday. Knisley, 19, was found dead at the scene when police responded and Thornburg, 23, was airlifted to Lutheran Hospital, Fort Wayne, with a gunshot wound to the head. According to information released by the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department late this morning, Thornburg was on life support. “Family members have approved the donation process for her and additional information will be forthcoming this weekend,” the release stated. Thornburg twice identified Woody as the shooter when a Syracuse police officer responded to her 911 call shortly after midnight Tuesday, according to a probable cause affidavit from the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office. Woody was taken into custody at gunpoint in Mishawaka shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday, after tips from citizens directed police to St. Joseph County. He is being held in the Kosciusko County Jail without bond. Thornburg said in the 911 call that Woody had shot her boyfriend in the head and knocked her out, before losing contact with the operator. The responding officer found her in the downstairs living room with a gunshot wound to the head, a laceration under her left eye and a pool of blood on the floor, according to the affidavit. Knisley’s body was found in an upstairs bedroom with a gunshot wound to the head. The officer also found three unspent 9mm cartridges under the bed and one spent cartridge on the bed. A Lutheran Hospital doctor told police the gun appeared to have been placed inside Thornburg’s mouth when she was shot. The bullet had entered through her mouth and gone through a vertebra. Syracuse Police Chief Tony Ciriello said Woody was familiar with the victims. Woody was named a person of interest Thursday morning and a warrant for his arrest was issued later in the day. Hours before his arrest, Woody posted on his Facebook page – under his rap performer alias, Cash Flow – that he “wasn’t involved.” “I'm going to talk to them, (I don’t know) why my name is in this but I'll fix it,”?he wrote.
