Elkhart man charged with fatally shooting security guard in South Bend parking garage

SOUTH BEND — A 33-year-old Elkhart man is charged with killing a security guard in a downtown South Bend parking garage late Sunday night.

Derrick Pratcher allegedly shot and killed security guard Robert Pulliam Jr., 62, after the guard confronted him for loitering in the Wayne Street Parking Garage, prosecutors allege in court documents.

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Prosecutors claim Pratcher was illegally carrying the handgun he allegedly used to kill Pulliam. He was prohibited from carrying a firearm because of a previous felony conviction of operating a vehicle after being suspended for life. Federal law prohibits convicted felons from owning or possessing a firearm.

The killing occurred about 11:21 p.m. Sunday after two witnesses ― employees on patrol for South Bend Venue Parks & Arts, according to a probable cause affidavit ― saw an unfamiliar man loitering near city vehicles parked in the public garage. The witnesses alerted Pulliam, the on-duty security guard at the garage working for ASM Global, a venue management company paid by the city.

According to police, Pulliam approached Pratcher to tell him he was trespassing and had to leave. Pulliam took a photo of the man’s vehicle and license plate then turned his back to dial 911.

Pratcher pulled a handgun from his bag and shot the security guard in the back of the head at close range, police claim.

Pratcher allegedly then got in his car, a rental black Kia Sportage with a Florida license plate, and drove away from the garage. He was not at the scene when South Bend Police Department officers arrived in response to reports of shots fired made at 11:23 p.m.

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Officers found Pulliam unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the head. An autopsy confirmed that Pulliam died as a result of the wound, and a pathologist ruled the death a homicide, prosecutors claim.

But police recovered a photo Pulliam had taken of the vehicle’s license plate, documents say. The photo's timestamp was 11:21 p.m.

Officers reportedly discovered Pratcher was renting the car and tracked its location to Vandalia, Mich., about a 45-minute drive northeast from downtown South Bend. On Monday afternoon, Cass County Sheriff’s office deputies said they found Pratcher alone in the car at a park.

Police say Pratcher admitted that he owned the gun and that he had been in the parking garage in the Kia on Sunday night. But he denied that he encountered anyone in the garage, police say.

He is charged with murder, unlawful carrying of a handgun as a felon, and a misdemeanor count of unlawful carrying of a handgun.

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In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, local officials noted that the garage, at the corner of Wayne Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, is one people commonly use for trips downtown.

Pratcher was initially confronted by two Venue Parks & Arts workers who noticed him loitering around the city vehicles, according to charging documents.

After speaking with Pratcher briefly, the two workers said they left the garage. One of them kept watch while parked across the street and eventually notified the security guard.

South Bend police officers regularly patrol areas where many people gather. But South Bend Mayor James Mueller said the city doesn’t want to be reactionary and call for a heavier armed presence throughout downtown and city parks.

It’s unclear if the security guard had a firearm or another weapon.

"On a typical day, downtown is very safe, our parks are safe, and there is not this issue," Mueller said, "even though we do have a gun violence problem in the city, just like we do across the country."

“We know there are a lot of guns around in the community,” the mayor added. “We know folks are exercising their Second Amendment right, so that makes things challenging across the board, where there are so many guns in the hands of our residents, (who are) walking around in our streets, in our community centers and in our parks. That’s a challenge.”

Correction: A prior version of this story stated that one of the two witnesses was a Downtown South Bend ambassador. Charging documents say that both employees were on patrol for South Bend Venues Parks & Arts.

Tribune reporter Marek Mazurek contributed to this report.

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Elkhart man charged with murder of guard in South Bend parking garage