FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — The bailiff probably didn’t see it coming as he escorted two Allen County Jail inmates out of an Allen County third floor courtroom Friday to go back to the jail lock-up.
But a tiny 41-year-old woman was waiting by the third-floor rotunda when the bailiff, Officer Blake Reed with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department, ordered her to leave the area multiple times.
Ana Maria Gomez Nolasco refused the orders and continued her approach to the bailiff and two inmates. At 8:55 a.m., Nolasco threw a punch towards Tre Zwieg, charged with two murders in December, but missed and clocked the bailiff instead.
Monday, Nolasco was charged with a Felony 5 battery to a public safety official and misdemeanor resisting law enforcement. She was released from the Allen County Jail on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.
Steve Stone, public information officer for the sheriff’s department, called the incident rare, but the department was investigating to see if other measures need to take place when inmates are escorted through the back hallway. The fact that this happened for a pre-trial conference was surprising. The department usually beefs up security when sentencings are scheduled because those can be emotional, Stone added.
Stone said his department believed that Ana Maria Gomez Nolasco was likely related to one of the victims and that was the reason for the attack.
Zwieg, 19, was in court for an 8:30 a.m. pre-trial conference with Judge Steven Godfrey. His three-day trial for the shooting deaths of Brendan Steave Cole, 19, of Fort Wayne and Juan Jose Ramirez, Jr., 16, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, is to begin May 10 in Allen Superior Court Judge Fran Gull’s courtroom.
No motive has been provided for why Zwieg, charged with shooting the two at a home in the 700 block of Cumberland Avenue just before 2:30 a.m. Dec. 3., shot them. Their bodies were found in a hallway connected to the house and garage by a woman who reportedly lived there. She said she first saw one of the victims wearing a red hoodie and black pants lying down in her garage at 2:24 a.m. on Dec. 3, 2021.The man looked pale and cold.
The discovery came about four hours after a caller reported hearing 10 shots fired, but then heard nothing further. When officers responded to the initial call, they found nothing of note. The woman who reported the shooting later told officers she heard five shots fired, a pause and then five more shots. She didn’t hear anyone yelling or screaming or any cars taking off, court documents said.
Homicide detective Luke MacDonald entered the garage with other officers for a walkthrough of the crime scene and found Cole and Ramirez lying in the passageway next to a wooden door leading to the garage. Surrounding them were multiple 9mm shell casings and projectiles, the shell casings a mix of ammunition that included TRN, PMC and Hornady ammo. The Allen County Coroner ruled that both men died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Detectives discovered a connection between Zwieg and Cole when both of them were involved in a traffic stop by Fort Wayne police on Aug. 8, 2021. Zwieg’s address was listed at 300 yards to the east of the garage where the bodies were found. With some forensic cell phone digging, Zwieg’s cell phone number was at that home at 10:15 and 10:40 p.m. the night of Dec. 2 around the time the neighbor heard the gunshots.
Saturday after the shooting deaths, detectives obtained a search warrant for Zwieg’s address and found three different empty handgun magazines, a Smith & Wesson M&P R-15, one live round of TRN 9mm ammunition and a black winter hat that had two holes cut out in a makeshift ski mask. One live round of TRN ammunition matched the same type found at the crime scene, court documents said.
Detectives also found Zwieg’s red Apple iPhone SE which, after being examined, showed several photos and videos of guns and ammunitions that had been deleted. When the photos were retrieved, one showed a man holding several live rounds that were the same type of 9mm Hornady ammunition found at the crime scene.
Zwieg told detectives he got a ride to work at Arcos Restaurant by a roommate and worked from 4 p.m. until close Dec. 2 He got a ride to his mother’s home on Starboard Drive, after he got off work at 9:45 p.m. Then he asked his girlfriend to take him to an apartment on Ridgewood Drive, very close to the crime scene where he was gong to change out of his work clothes.
They talked about their relationship until about 10:40 p.m., he said and that he had to be home by 10:45 p.m. the same time the shootings apparently occurred. Zwieg told officers he went inside the apartmentwhere Brendan and Zwieg stayed and that Brendan had already left. Then Zwieg claimed he fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 3:30 a.m.
In the comings and goings of the group, the girlfriend said she visited a friend and when she went back to the apartment where Zwieg had been, she heard one gunshot and then saw a man running nearby who was wearing dark colored sweats, a sweatshirt, a ski mask who looked like Zwieg.
On Dec. 4, the girlfriend ended up going to Zwieg’s mother’s home after she got a call that she’d left a necklace there. When she arrived there, the day after the shooting deaths, Zwieg asked to speak to her in private in the bathroom.
Zwieg told her that “if she loved him she needed to tell the police that she was with him between the times of 10:35 and 10:55 p.m. on Dec. 2 and to say that she came inside the apartment and that they had sex before leaving,” court documents said. The girlfriend said Zwieg wouldn’t let her leave the bathroom until she agreed to provide the alibi.
Zwieg was arrested in Indianapolis close to Ben Davis High School, Sgt. Tim Hughes, head of the FWPD homicide unit said. The arrest was made by FWPD homicide, Vice & Narcotics Unit and the Indiana State Police.
