Man who pleaded guilty in Indiana mall shooting that wounded 1 gets home detention

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — A man who pleaded guilty in a shooting that wounded one person inside a northeastern Indiana shopping mall last year has been sentenced to one year of home detention.

An Allen County magistrate sentenced Quentin A. Lewis, 28, on Wednesday to three years with two years suspended. The remaining year of Lewis’ sentence will be served in the county's home detention program, followed by two years of probation.

Lewis pleaded guilty last month to criminal recklessness, one day before he was scheduled to appear for a pretrial conference in the shooting at Fort Wayne’s Glenbrook Square. Under his plea agreement, a charge of battery by means of a deadly weapon that Lewis had faced was dismissed.

The Fort Wayne man was charged days after the September 2023 shooting left one man with a gunshot wound to the leg in the city about 120 miles (190 kilometers) northeast of Indianapolis.

Authorities said the shooting followed tension between Lewis and the shooting victim because of comments Lewis had made about a woman and her children at a barbershop a few days earlier.

Lewis’ plea agreement includes an order barring him from contacting the shooting victim and also calls for him to submit to an alcohol, substance abuse and psychological evaluation.

Lewis' attorney, Megan Lynn Close, called the sentence fair considering the circumstances of the case. She said Lewis wanted to take responsibility for discharging a firearm in a mall and was happy no one else was hurt, characterizing the incident as “a classic case of self-defense.”