CORONER: Husband, wife killed in separate homicides

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - Fort Wayne police are investigating after a husband and wife were killed in separate shootings over the weekend.

Court documents say police were called around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, about a possible dead body in a vacant lot near Bloomingdale Park. Police arrived and found a woman with an apparent gunshot wound in her head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Later on Friday, police announced that they arrested Sedrick Williams, 31, on a count of murder in her death. On Monday, the coroner identified the woman as 34-year-old Vanessa Lynn Brabson of Fort Wayne. Her death was ruled a homicide.

FWPD then responded to a shooting Sunday morning near South Calhoun Street and Pettit Avenue. When officers arrived, they said they found a person suffering from gunshot wounds who was taken to an area hospital where they were later pronounced dead.

The coroner has identified the victim as 33-year-old Sean Thomas Brabson of Fort Wayne, Vanessa’s husband. His death was also ruled a homicide, marking Allen County’s 22nd and 23rd homicides so far this year.

Court records say police interviewed a witness who said she was walking with Sean Brabson into the alley from Lenox Ave. when someone in a dark hoodie “ran up behind them.” She said they started shooting at Brabson and she ran off.

Police arrested 33-year-old James Saylor on one count of murder in Sean’s killing. Court documents provided in both killings, attached below, did not mention a motive.

The Fort Wayne Police Department is currently investigating whether these incidents are connected. We will update this story as soon as we have more information.

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