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Indianapolis tallies 50th homicide this year

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis Metropolitan Police have recorded 50 intentional homicides so far this year, compared to 46 at this time last year.

While law enforcement may keep the numbers, loved ones say the violence is personal. 

“I can tell by the position of that car that he was trying to make it to either my house or his grandmother’s house,” said Byron Davenport Sr., the father of a man shot and killed around 3:15 Saturday afternoon near 24th and Sheldon streets. Davenport works at a funeral home and told WISH-TV he’s seen an increase in homicides at funeral home, particularly when it comes to juvenile victims.

But he never made it to his relatives’ homes; 44-year-old Byron Davenport Jr. ended up at the hospital when officials pronounced him dead.  

It’s a scene that’s been repeated 50 times this year.

Just half an hour after Davenport was killed, at a Speedway gas station at 38th Street and Georgetown Road, a shooting involving three firearms, which police reportedly called ‘a Wild West show” left one person in critical condition and another person with minor injuries.

And two hours after that, a woman was critically injured in a shooting inside a KFC at 71st Street and Michigan Road. 

Hicham Zoubaa manages a Boost Mobile store that shares its parking lot with the KFC. 

“Selling, I love selling to people and taking care of them and giving them means of communicating everyday,”said Zoubaa.

But he said his love for his work turned into fear on Saturday. 

“We got a bunch of cops driving by, just sealing the whole area, when we knew something bad had happened,” said Zoubaa.

“Within the three hours where the woman was shot, three more shootings were in Indy, like at the same time,” said Zoubaa. 

But Saturday wasn’t the end, with two other fatal shootings on Sunday: one treated as a death investigation and the other as homicide, when last confirmed by police. 

Early Sunday morning, officers responded to a residence in the 5000 block of Lily Lane, near 52nd Street and Georgetown Road, where they found 48-year-old Dwayne Lipscomb fatally shot. The incident is being treated as a death investigation at this time. 

And around 12:45 p.m. Sunday, two people were shot in the parking lot of the Cottages of Fall Creek apartments in the 6800 block of Cedarstone Drive, near 56th Street and Arlington Avenue. Deshawn McKellar, 29, died in that shooting, while a 30-year-old man was injured. 

Nine different shooting scenes altogether injured or killed both juvenile and adult victims.

“I’m really, really hurt right now. I’m hurt inside. It just makes me want to cry inside,” said Davenport of his son’s death.

Police are asking for your help. If you have information that could help in this investigation, call Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.

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