Who shot Scott Tillman?

Earlier this year, police suspended their investigation into the shooting after concluding Tillman was the “specific target” of the assault, which occurred in the second-floor office of a building he owns at the northwest corner of Campbell Avenue and Walnut Street.

Detectives learned that Tillman, who declined to discuss with SBJ the assault or subsequent investigation, made several enemies over the years as a real-estate agent and developer, but none were ever linked to the shooter.

Witnesses described the suspect as a white male in his late 40s or early 50s who was wearing a blue winter coat, jeans and a ski mask when he confronted Tillman the morning of Jan. 14, 2005.

“You owe money,” the attacker told Tillman, according to police records.

Tillman’s debts date back to at least January 1991, when he filed for personal bankruptcy in U.S. District Court.

The man punctuated his statement by hitting Tillman in the head with a metal rod. Moments later, as Tillman tried to defend himself with a glass Founders Club trophy, the man fired a single shot from his .22-caliber handgun and then disappeared.

Tillman told police he noticed scarring – possibly from burns – around the suspect’s eyes. And a witness who rushed to Tillman’s aid saw the man’s face as he ran down interior stairs on the building’s south side.

The man was last seen fleeing west on Walnut Street, and police later recovered the discarded ski mask on the sidewalk outside Springfield Tire & Exchange at 211 S. Market Ave. Investigators also lifted several shoeprints from the floor in Tillman’s office.

That’s where the evidence ends and speculation begins.

Contractor dispute

One theory about the motive behind the assault involves the very building where the crime occurred – an angle that warrants a mere mention in the police investigation.

In 2002, Tillman hired MTS Contracting out of Kansas City to strip the paint from the historic building but refused to pay the $15,664 bill, court records show.

After repeated attempts to collect the money, MTS filed suit against Tillman in March 2004 in Greene County Associate Circuit Court. Tillman promptly filed a counterclaim, alleging MTS damaged his building by improperly applying paint-stripping fluid. He also argued the company had breached its contract by performing the work in an “unprofessional and unworkmanlike manner,” court records show.

The suit was abruptly dropped in December 2004 after both parties reached a settlement, said Springfield attorney J. Matthew Miller, who represented MTS during the dispute.

“Ultimately, we had a figure, they had a figure, and we came up with a number between the two,” Miller said.

Records suggest police never followed up on the monetary spat as a possible motive for the shooting, which occurred just weeks after the lawsuit was settled, and Cpl. Allen Neal – the Springfield detective who revisited the case in January – did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Longtime feud

Police also interviewed a local developer who blamed Tillman for a failed real estate deal and admitted to publicly threatening his ex-business partner. Mike Seitz of Triple S Properties said he and Tillman had a falling out in 2000.

Tillman told police he had planned to buy several lots from Seitz on the stipulation that Seitz build a road on the property. Tillman said the deal fizzled when Seitz failed to follow through, records show.

Seitz did not return messages left at his office, but during a police interview, he was vocal about his disdain for Tillman.

Seitz adamantly denied having anything to do with the shooting, but he did say that Tillman had a “long list” of people who were unhappy with him because of past business dealings, according to police records. He also suggested to police that Tillman likely knew who shot him and why.

Acquaintances of Tillman who anonymously spoke with police about the developer and his business practices sounded as if they were talking about two different people.

“Several of the witnesses described Tillman as a shrewd businessman that would do anything to make money or to close a deal; however, we also interviewed numerous people that liked Tillman and described him as being very professional and polite,” Cpl. Neal wrote in his report.

Tillman dismisses tip

Another person whose name arose during the police investigation was Ron Walker – an emerging figure in the redevelopment of historic Commercial Street.

Walker had previously contracted with Tillman for remodeling work on buildings Tillman owned, but records show Tillman quickly dismissed the notion that Walker was somehow connected to the January 2005 attack.

A tipster told police that Tillman and Walker had stopped working together a couple of months prior to the shooting because Walker wasn’t completing work for Tillman in a timely manner.

Tillman later told police the information was inaccurate and that he had received a check from Walker the morning of the assault, records show.

Walker has been involved in a dozen projects on Commercial Street, investing close to $2 million over the last two years. Later this summer, he plans to reopen Lindberg’s, a live-music venue he’s renovating at the southeast corner of Commercial and Campbell.

Walker declined to comment about his relationship with Tillman now, but he did say that police never followed up with him about the shooting.[[In-content Ad]]