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Teen male found dead in street on Indianapolis east side

UPDATE: The victim was identified by the Marion County Coroner’s Office as 15-year-old Sha’Kiey Moore.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A teen male was found dead and lying in a street early Thursday morning with a gunshot wound, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Just after 5:30 a.m. Thursday, a driver waived down police at a nearby gas station after finding the teen laying along the roadside in the 3400 block of North Leland Avenue. That’s in a residential area north of East 34th Street near Emerson Avenue on the city’s east side.

Officers found the unresponsive teen with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.

IMPD homicide detectives were called to the scene. Detectives believe his death may have happened sometime during the overnight hours.

Carol Silaghi has lived for 30 years in the neighborhood where the teen’s body was found. “Right now, I tend to still defend this neighborhood and say it’s a quiet neighborhood, but, I have to admit, the shootings are getting more frequent.”

Silaghi added, “The last six months to two years, it seems like there are teenagers back again and things are happening, and it’s going in a cycle.”

Another resident of the neighborhood, Marchelle McGee said she feels sorry for the family of the teenager. “The way I was raised when the streetlights were on, you were in your house.”

IMPD Sgt. Genae Cook said, “We are hoping that someone in the area heard something. We cannot express enough the importance of when you hear something in the middle of the night don’t assume that somebody else is calling the police. Someone needed help out here and no one called the police. We need our community to step up. Don’t assume that someone else is going to do it. We need to do it ourselves.”

The sergeant also said, “Take that extra second to think about, you know, what you heard last night. If you have a Ring doorbell or some type of cameras outside of your house, please take a look at them and see if there is something you see.”

The Marion County Coroner’s Office will determine the teen’s cause of death and release his identification. IMPD did not know the teen’s age.

Anyone with information was asked to contact Detective Mark Howard at the IMPD Homicide Office at 317-327-3475 or e-mail him at mark.howard@indy.gov.

News 8’s Adam Pinsker contributed to this report.

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