BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Bloomington police have arrested a homeless man for murder after they say he was found sleeping in a van near a dead body.
Scott A. Cooper, a 56-year-old transient man, was arrested on Tuesday morning by Bloomington Police Department officers after they were called to investigate a shooting death. Cooper has been preliminarily charged with murder.
BPD said officers were dispatched around 6:20 a.m. to a parking lot in the 2100 block of S. Liberty Drive for an unconscious person. The caller said she had arrived at work and saw the man lying on the ground, not moving.
Officers arrived to find a man who was pronounced dead on scene. BPD said he had been shot in his chest.
Detectives began searching the area near where the man's body was found and soon came upon a van parked nearby with what appeared to be a bullet hole through the windshield. Inside another nearby van, they found a man sleeping.
The man, later identified as Cooper, was asked to get out of the van. BPD said that after officers briefly spoke with the suspect, he was detained and taken to headquarters for questioning.
BPD said that two vans, the one with the bullet hole and the one Cooper was found sleeping in, were later towed from the scene after investigators received search warrants. Furthermore, officers reportedly found a loaded .380 caliber handgun inside the 2006 Chrysler Town & Country that Cooper was asleep in.
After being interviewed by BPD investigators, Cooper was taken to Monroe County Jail and booked on one charge of felony murder.
Authorities said that an autopsy has been scheduled for the dead man as officers work to contact next of kin. No other information was immediately provided.