High schooler fatally shot at fall festival believed to have died while shielding others

CORYDON, Ind. (WAVE/Gray News) - High schoolers in Indiana are remembering their 18-year-old classmate, who was killed in a triple shooting following a dispute between at least two groups at a fall festival.

Several memorials for 18-year-old Bryce Gerlach were set up around the Corydon Central High School campus Monday – from outside the football field where Gerlach played on the varsity team to his parking spot in the school lot, WAVE reports. Feelings of sadness and confusion filled the air as students grappled with the loss of one of their own, who was an innocent bystander in what police call a senseless act of violence.

“I just sat in my bed for hours and thought, ‘Why him?’ It shouldn’t have been him. He didn’t deserve that,” said Tanner Chumbly, who was one of Gerlach’s closest friends on and off the football field.

Gerlach was attending the Harvest Homecoming festival Saturday night in New Albany when a shooting happened just after 9:50 p.m. He died at the scene. Police say two other people, a 22-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman, were hospitalized with injuries.

Police believe all three of the victims were innocent bystanders and unrelated to the dispute that led up to the shooting. At least two groups of people were involved in the dispute, and there were at least two shooters, according to police.

Gerlach’s fellow students believe their friend died shielding others in his group from a bullet.

“It was very selfless what he did, and I’m thankful he went out in such a heroic way so that’s how people remember him because that’s what he was. He was a hero,” Chumbly said.

Chumbly’s Monday morning routine was different without his friend.

“We’d pull in together every day, and it’s just so different not seeing him pull in at the same time every day now,” he said.

Gerlach’s parking spot is now one of several memorials put up around the high school honoring him. Trent Clark, who grew up with Gerlach’s younger brother and played football with him, says being together is what’s helping.

“I just feel like we’re all in this together, the football team, the school. He was our brother. We were like family. We’re just a big family,” Clark said.

Superintendent Mark Eastridge added seeing the community coming together is important.

“You had a young man that was just going out to enjoy himself with friends at a local festival, and to have his innocence and his life ripped from him by the senseless violence, it makes it all the more difficult to deal with as a school and a school community,” Eastridge said.

The students are honoring their friend in several ways from donning his favorite color, blue – which is also the color of his beloved truck – to displaying “LLB,” meaning long live Bryce.

“He’s just a genuine person, a real humble guy,” Clark said.

The school had counselors and therapy dogs on-site to help students.

Police said all the suspects, described as men in their teens and early 20s, fled the area after the shooting. One suspect was identified as a male with dreadlocks wearing a red hoodie. All suspects are still considered dangerous.

Police say while they have identified several people as persons of interest, they have not positively identified anyone.

Anyone with information on the suspect or the shooting is asked to call police at 812-944-6411.

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