Arrest report details how trailer confrontation turned deadly

By Brian Nordli

Wednesday, July 10, 2013 | 5:20 p.m.

Blood pooled around Gary Bly’s head Tuesday morning as he curled up in the fetal position on a trailer floor slowly dying from a gunshot wound.

His roommate, Lisa Papoutsis, kneeled next to him with a gunshot wound to her hand. Moments before, a man Papoutsis knew as “Money” had walked into the trailer at Vans Trailer Oasis with a gun demanding money. Bly confronted him, and Money pulled the trigger.

He fired two shots and then ran out.

Those were the details outlined in a Metro Police arrest report involving a double shooting Tuesday that left Bly dead and Papoutsis injured. Metro Police arrested Gary Lamar Chambers, 45, Tuesday night in connection with the double shooting.

The report details the following:

Before the shooting, Chambers’ cousin, who worked at Van’s Trailer Oasis, saw Chambers sitting in a Saturn Vue parked near space No. 45 with his daughter and her friend. Chambers told him he was going to see Papoutsis to “pick up a package.”

His cousin took that to mean he was going to buy methamphetamines.

Chambers then called Papoutsis and entered the home about one minute later. Papoutsis told police Chambers right hand rested on a holstered gun as he demanded money.

“You know what this is about,” Chambers said. “Give me your money.”

Papoutsis screamed, and Bly came in from the back room and confronted Chambers. Chambers shot Bly in the head and turned the barrel on her, she said. She slapped the gun as it fired, striking her in her hand.

Chambers then drove away.

Not long after the shooting, Chambers’ girlfriend received a call from him asking her to meet him at a convenience store and to report the Saturn she owned stolen. He said he was in trouble and sounded nervous, but she refused to report the vehicle stolen.

Metro Police detectives identified Chambers as an occupant in the car. A patrol officer arrested him at a Jack in the Box restaurant near Owens Avenue and Lamb Boulevard.

Chambers was also in possession of 5.4 grams of methamphetamine.

Chambers admitted to going to Papoutsis’ trailer to buy methamphetamines with his daughter and her friend in the car. He denied having a gun or shooting the victims. He said Papoutsis was in the trailer with two guys in addition to him.

One of the guys pulled out a gun and the two guys began fighting over it. The gun went off striking Bly. Chambers said he left the trailer, and later heard Papoutsis had been shot in the finger.

His daughters’ friend, however, said she heard gunshots and witnessed Chambers walking back to the car carrying a gun holster in his left hand and blood all over his arm. She told police he said he was trying to rob Papoutsis, and pulled a gun out to protect himself. Bly wrestled with him causing the gun to go off.

Four other witnesses stated seeing Chambers run from the trailer with a handgun.

Chambers was charged with murder with a deadly weapon, attempted murder with a deadly weapon, burglary with a deadly weapon and trafficking a controlled substance — methamphetamine.