Staff Report
COLUMBIA CITY — A recent Warsaw High School graduate who was part of the football team remains hospitalized after being shot Saturday night at a large party in South Whitley.
Jayden Habegger had been at a party in South Whitley that attracted about 100 people.
The shooting happened in the midst of a fight involving a dozen or so people.
Horacio Adrian Castro, 21, faces an attempted murder charge.
Witnesses shared a video with investigators that showed Habegger with his arms up, walking backwards and “appearing fearful and retreating” as a man and a juvenile approached him, according to a detective’s report with the Whitley County Sheriff’s Office.
The man, identified as Castro, allegedly fired the shot that hit Habegger.
Castro then left the party but was apprehended at a gas station a short time later.
Habegger remains hospitalized in Fort Wayne, and a GoFundMe page has pledges of nearly $9,000 that will be used to help offset medical expenses.
Habegger’s mother wrote earlier this week on the GoFundMe page that a bullet had remained lodged in her son’s hip.
On Wednesday, she wrote: “Just wanted to share an update, my son is out of surgery and currently stable. He’ll be in the ICU for the next two days so the medical team can keep a close eye on him.”