Police investigate shots reported at apartments

Early morning gunshots fired in the area of Henderson Court Apartments prompted the Bloomington Police Department to open an investigation Wednesday.\nAfter receiving complaints of the sound of gunshots coming from the 2400 block of South Winslow Court, officers reported to Henderson Court and determined that the shots seemed to be coming mainly from one particular apartment, said Lt. Janelle Benedict, reading from a police report. Nobody answered the door, but eventually, a male subject who identified himself as the tenant's boyfriend arrived and let the officers into the apartment. Officers questioned him about the situation, the police report said, but he appeared to know nothing.\nWhen officers entered, they found Jennifer Dotson, 18, who lives in the apartment, and Micah Wallace, 25, according to the police report. Both subjects denied any knowledge of the gunshots, the police report said. Benedict said the officers checked the apartment for any injured people or dangerous materials and found a sawed-off shotgun as well as a small bag of marijuana, which was in plain sight.\nPolice brought Dotson, Wallace and Dotson's boyfriend to the station for interviews, and all three, again, said they knew nothing about the gunshots. Meanwhile, Dotson refused consent for police to search her apartment, so they obtained a telephonic search warrant, Benedict said.\nA detailed search of Dotson's apartment uncovered another small quantity of marijuana, a handgun and some used shells of the same caliber as the handgun. They also found shells for the shotgun, according to the report.\nAt about the same time, officers found that a window of Winslow One-Stop Laundromat, which is located directly behind the apartment, was shot out. All three subjects denied any knowledge of that, Benedict said.\nPolice arrested Dotson on preliminary charges of possession of a sawed-off shotgun, a class D felony; maintaining a common nuisance, a class D felony; and possession of marijuana, a class A misdemeanor. They arrested Wallace on a preliminary charge of visiting a common nuisance, a class B misdemeanor. Dotson's boyfriend was not arrested.\nPolice have not determined whether any of the subjects are associated with the window shot out of the laundromat, Benedict said.