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Residents say gunshot victim collapsed in bushes near apartments; 2 killed

Double shooting at Southport Crossing

One man was killed and another critically injured Monday afternoon at the south side apartment complex.

UPDATE: The second gunshot victim was pronounced dead Tuesday morning, police said.


INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Residents who witnessed the aftermath of a double shooting Monday at their south side apartment complex comforted each other as detectives secured the homicide scene.

Officers were dispatched around 4:20 p.m. to the Southport Crossing apartments, near East Street and Southport Road.

One victim was found dead in a car parked on the east side of the apartment complex, off Creekbrook Drive, police said.

The second victim was transported to Eskenazi Hospital in critical condition.

One resident, who requested not to be identified in this report, was standing outside her apartment when the second victim ran across the courtyard and collapsed behind a bush, she told News 8.

She and her son grabbed towels and attempted to control his bleeding while waiting for medics to arrive. The man appeared to be in his early 20s and had been shot in the chest and left hand, according to the residents.

A spokesperson for Indianapolis police declined to confirm details about the victims’ injuries.

Officials had not yet identified the victims Monday night.

Bob Torgerson, another Southport Crossing resident, reported hearing at least 10 gunshots while making dinner for his grandsons.

“It sounded like a small package of firecrackers,” he told News 8. “And then there was silence. And then, ‘Bam, bam, bam.’”

Torgerson looked outside as a man with a pistol ran across the courtyard, “holding his gut” and bleeding profusely, he said.

His grandsons, 8 and 13, often play in the courtyard.

Lonte Ward, a resident whose unit is adjacent to the parking lot where the other man was killed, said he was “scared for [his] kids.”

“If my kids weren’t on fall break, they would have been getting off the bus [near the homicide scene] as this was happening,” Ward told News 8. “This is crazy.”

He, his wife and their three sons had witnessed at least three homicide investigations during their two and a half years at the south side complex.

In June 2017, a 34-year-old woman was shot and killed at the Southport Crossing apartments.

In May 2017, a group of fishermen found the body of a 31-year-old man who had been shot to death in the woods behind the complex.

Police believe Monday’s shooting was an “isolated incident,” according to Sgt. Grace Sibley, a spokesperson for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD).

Sibley was unable to confirm if police were seeking additional suspects Monday night.

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