3 Arrested After Woman Found Dead In River

INDIANAPOLIS -- Three men have been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a woman whose body was found floating in the White River earlier this month.
Police questioned and later arrested Jerry Williams (pictured, left), Luther Bonds (pictured, middle) and Steven Brown (pictured, right) in the death of Britney Tate, 21.

Indianapolis police said Bonds told them he was Tate's boyfriend and had gone for a ride with her, Williams and Brown on Sept. 30.

Bonds told police that Williams was playing with a gun in the back of a car when an argument began over the weapon.

Brown told an officer that Tate gave Williams a dirty look during the argument and that Williams said, "Don't tell me what to do," before he pointed the gun at Tate's head and pulled the trigger, killing her.

Police said all three men took Tate's body to the river. Before she was tossed in, the men tried to tie rocks to her body with a shoestring to keep the body from floating, investigators said. When police went through Williams' belongings at the jail, they found just one shoestring.


Tate's body was found on Oct. 3. Williams and Bonds were arrested on unrelated charges a few hours after the body was discovered.

"They were in a vehicle that was going the wrong way and then they fled from police," said Indianapolis police Sgt. Matt Mount. "They found a weapon on him. That weapon, with ballistics testing, proved to be the murder weapon."

Brown and Bonds were arrested on charges of assisting a criminal, abuse of a corpse and obstruction of justice. Williams was expected to be charged with either murder or manslaughter and abuse of a corpse.