Kristine Guerra

kristine.guerra@indystar.com

William Alvies began calling his mother, Louann Hardin, regularly about two months ago. He was usually crying.

"I love her," the 19-year-old would say of his former girlfriend. "I need her."

Late Tuesday morning, Alvies called his mother again. And again he was crying.

"He said he really loves her. He just wants to talk to her," Hardin told The Indianapolis Star. "He didn't want to lose her."

His words and his tone, though, were troubling. Hardin told her son that she would come and get him. As she was driving on the Eastside, she received another call from her son.

He told his mother he was in an alley. He was out of breath, Hardin said. And, as before, he was crying.

"Mom, I think I shot her," Alvies said, according to his mother.

Alvies is accused of trying to kill his former girlfriend in a hail of gunfire shortly before noon Tuesday outside Arsenal Tech High School, where the 17-year-old girl is a student. She was wounded in the shoulder and has since been released from the hospital.

TROUBLING BEHAVIOR:Arsenal Tech suspect had history of threats, records say

On Thursday outside a Marion County courtroom, Hardin recalled the recent events as her son waited to appear before a judge. He had been preliminarily charged with attempted murder.

Three weeks before the shooting, the girl received a protective order against Alvies. Records say Alvies has a history of threatening to hurt her.

In an interview with detectives, Alvies said he waited for the girl to walk to her car in the parking lot across the street from the school, according to a probable cause affidavit. He knew her car, her class schedule and when she went to lunch, he told police.

The girl said she and a friend were in her car when Alvies approached them, according to court documents. He had a gun. The girl got out of the car and ran toward the street, screaming. Alvies chased her, police said, and fired shots at her outside the school gate, then fled. Police later found the gun, a Cobra .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun, in a nearby creek.

Shortly after, Hardin arrived at the scene. Police officers were already there. She talked to the responding officer, Mark Decker, whom she has known for several years. She told Decker she wanted to turn her son in so he wouldn't get hurt, according to documents.

Hardin received another call minutes later. It was her mother. Alvies was in her house.

When she got to her mother's house, Alvies was there. She said her son was pacing back and forth. He didn't know what to do.

"Should I run?" Hardin said Alvies asked.

"No, you shouldn't run," Hardin told him.

"I swear to God I didn't mean to hurt her," Hardin recalled her son saying.

Hardin persuaded her son to turn himself in to police.

"I told him how much I love him," she said.

About 2 p.m., Hardin and Alvies met with Decker in the parking lot of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's Downtown headquarters.

Hardin said her son is not a bad person, but he has anger issues.

"My son is not a fighter. He's not a thug," she said. "William ain't that type of person."

She said he was trying to better his life. They had been going to church together every Sunday, she said.

"He's going to Ivy Tech," Hardin said. "He's on his way to college."

She said she didn't know Alvies had a gun until after the shooting.

Alvies has not been formally charged. The Marion County prosecutor's office on Thursday requested a 72-hour continuance. Prosecutors have until Monday to decide whether to file formal charges against Alvies and what those charges should be. He remains in the Marion County Jail on an $80,000 surety bond.

His initial hearing was rescheduled for 1 p.m. Monday.

Call Star reporter Kristine Guerra at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @kristine_guerra.