Indianapolis reaches 100 homicides sooner than last year
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis has reached 100 homicides in 2020, city leaders said it’s a tragic milestone that has been hit earlier than last year.
The city’s Director of Community Violence Reduction Shonna Majors said with the way things are going right now Indianapolis could reach 200 homicides this year.
“It really bothers me where we are right now. I wish I had a crystal ball, you know, more control over when people decide to settle their disputes using a firearm ,” said Majors.
However she said 2020 started with a different set of challenges because of the pandemic, many of the community programs aimed at curbing violence have not been running. However, Majors knows that is not the root cause of all the shootings.
“A lot of this starts in people’s homes and trying to help them unlearn some of the bad or poor examples and behaviors they’ve learned generationally and being impoverished, economics is a big part of this,” said Majors.
Derris Ross understands how tough that can be. “I used to be that person standing on the block, selling drugs, gang banging and I changed my whole life around,” said Ross.
Now he’s a community advocate on the city’s East Side, trying to help others change too. But he said he can’t do it alone.
“It’s disheartening, not toward my community but towards our stakeholders, towards our elected officials, towards people in position to make something happen.”
Majors shares his frustration and said her office is working to form new partnerships and rebuild old ones.
