INDIANAPOLIS — A pregnant teller shot in a bank robbery has lost the twins she was carrying, and police continued to search for the gunman Friday.
Katherin Shuffield, who was five months pregnant, was critically wounded when a masked gunman shot her in the abdomen Tuesday morning at a Huntington Bank branch.
Authorities and the family had said the bullets had not hit the twins. Complications set in, however, and one twin was born dead and the other died after birth, said Marion County’s chief deputy coroner, Alfarena Ballew.
Shuffield’s husband, Jason, said in a statement that the twins died late Thursday night and that his 30-year-old wife remained in critical but stable condition at Methodist Hospital.
“Katherin’s recovery is our top priority and she continues to receive the best possible care,” he said.
Ballew said she will examine the fetuses to determine the cause of death.
Earlier Friday, authorities said they planned to release three men arrested in connection with the robbery because a story told them by a suspect turned out to be untrue.
Marion County chief trial prosecutor David Wyser said several details that 25-year-old Shed James Jr. told police were inaccurate. He said James would be charged with false reporting, and police will release the three other men he had implicated. All four had been arrested Wednesday and held on preliminary charges of conspiracy to commit robbery; authorities had said none was believed to be the gunman.
Now that the fetuses have died, the gunman would be eligible for feticide or other charges, Wyser said without specifying. He said that in order for manslaughter charges to be filed in Indiana, Shuffield would have had to have been at least seven months pregnant.
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