New Albany, IN: New Albany shooting victims identified

Posted: May 28, 2010 6:18 PM EDT
Updated: May 29, 2010 8:57 PM EDT


By Connie Leonard - bio | email
Posted by Charles Gazaway - email

NEW ALBANY, IN (WAVE) - Floyd County Coroner Dr. Leslie Knable released the names of the two victims of Friday's shooting which occurred in the front yard of 108 Greendale Dr. in New Albany.

According to Dr. Knable, Clayton Wrege, 27, who lived at 108 Greendale Dr., died of multiple gun shot wounds while Hugh Bellis-Jones, 25, of Louisville, who was the alleged gunman, died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound.

People who know Wrege tell us he was a person who got caught in the middle of an ex-boyfriend's rage.

The double-shooting happened around 5 p.m. May 28 in the front yard of 108 Greendale Drive. Wrege's close friends say Bellis-Jones shot Wrege and then turned the gun on himself.

"I heard four to six shots," said Robert Arnold, a neighbor.

Arnold is also a gun owner and knew exactly what he had heard.

"It was pop, pop, pop, pop, that quick," said Arnold of the gunfire in his neighborhood. "She was screaming and hollering for somebody to call 911."

We've learned the girl Arnold saw screaming was a friend and roommate of Wrege at the house where the shooting happened. The two worked together at the Sports and Social Club at 4th Street Live! in Louisville.

Friends say after the young woman had some trouble with Bellis-Jones, an ex-boyfriend, her friend and co-worker, Wrege, let her move in with him until she could find a place. Friends and neighbors say the Bellis-Jones slashed their tires and spray painted their home in recent weeks, but the trouble ended Friday on the front lawn of the home when they say the Bellis-Jones showed up and shot Wrege then himself.

"They were disputing over her and it just comes to a head," Arnold remembered.

According to Captain Keith Whitlow, the New Albany Police chief of detectives, when their officers arrived at the scene, both men were dead.

Arnold says another neighbor witnessed the murder-suicide and went to police headquarters to tell investigators what he saw.

"It's a tragedy," said Arnold said. "It really is."

Several friends of the Wrege tell us he was one of the nicest people they ever met. By 10 p.m., his Facebook page was flooded with kind words for him. Many who knew him also sent e-mails to our newsroom about the man.