‘We’re afraid’; Daughters of woman gunned down at doorstep seek answers

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - Family members are heartbroken after 60-year-old Joyce Moore was shot and killed after opening her front door in Fort Wayne, Wednesday.

21Investigates reporter Karli VanCleave sat down with three of Moore’s daughters Thursday to understand more about what happened that day.

Tamra McClain, Tiffany David and Tonya Walker say their mother was a kind and loving woman. They say they don’t understand why someone would kill her like this. They say Moore was a grandmother and a great-grandmother to many.

“It makes us wonder, what is this world coming to,” Walker said. “You can’t even open your own door anymore. We’re afraid”

Police were called to the The Meridian apartment complex, off of East Paulding Road, around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday for a shooting. Once there, officers found a woman inside one of the apartments with gunshot wounds who was pronounced dead at the scene. FWPD said they were later told the woman opened the door for a man who then shot her.

The daughters say they will remember their mother for her overwhelming love for her children and family. They say they do not understand why someone would do this to her.

“If you lived in her neighborhood, people knew you could knock on her door and she would give you anything you needed,” David said. “It’s the world we live in now. Opening your front door you can lose your life.”

The Fort Wayne Police Department (FWPD) announced Thursday morning that they have arrested a 25-year-old man in the deadly shooting Wednesday morning at an area apartment complex.

Then, FWPD says officers stopped suspect 25-year-old Eric Underwood-McCarrol in the area of Julian Street and Wayne Trace around 9 p.m. that same day. Underwood was then arrested on one count of murder.

“Hopefully the kindness and softness of my Mom can inspire,” McClain said. “The man who did this also has a family and now his mother lost him too. This all needs to stop, because my mom was taken from all of us and she’s such a good person but this happens everyday. We need to be better and nicer to each other.”

Court documents did not reveal a motive behind why Underwood-McCarrol fired the gun at Moore.

Copyright 2023 WPTA. All rights reserved.