4 murders in 2 hours as Indy weighs spending more to fight violence
UPDATE: IMPD announced the arrest of a 25-year-old man in connection with the fatal shooting of the woman found in the car Wednesday night.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Police have suspects in two of three fatal shootings that left four dead late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
News 8 has learned Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is close to making an arrest in one of the shootings.
It’s the first week of October, and the city has recorded 205 murders by Wednesday afternoon.
Rick Synder, the leader of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 86, has been critical of the mayor’s handling of the ever-increasing violence in the city. He suggested Wednesday that the city’s get “back to basics.”
“Just get back to basics, do what we know works. In the middle of a crisis is not the time to became experimental, particularly the move away from crime intervention.”
Snyder added, “I can tell you the city that has the model to follow, it is Indianapolis in the late 1990s during the Weed and Seed program. It is Indianapolis in the early 2000s when the city was working in collaboration with the Ten Point Coalition and was actively supporting civilians that were going into the neighborhoods helping to stand the line, shoulder to shoulder with law enforcement. It worked; working together works.”
Late Tuesday night, police found two men shot at a hotel south of East 30th Street and Shadeland Avenue. One died at the scene, and the other died at a hospital a short time later.
While investigators were interviewing witnesses on Shadeland Avenue, police found another man shot dead near East 13th and North Denny streets.
Then a short time later on the far-southeast side of the city, a woman was found shot dead in a car.
In less than two hours, four people were murdered in Indianapolis.
But it’s not just in Indianapolis. Homicides in the U.S. in 2020 increased nearly 30% over the previous year, the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records, according to figures released a week ago by the agency.
“Nationwide violent crime is up in regards to homicides. (They) are up 30% not just in Indianapolis but throughout all of the United States and all major cities,” said Officer Genae Cook from IMPD public affairs.
The four murders came just two days after Mayor Joe Hogsett released more than $400,000 in new crime prevention grants.
News 8 on Monday asked the mayor when the city would start seeing the results from the millions of dollars his administration has spent on crime prevention. He said hopefully next year. “We are fighting as hard as we can to turn these numbers around. I would like to be able to say they will be turned around in 90 days.”
The mayor’s 2022 budget asks for $160 million in new crime-prevention cash. The Fraternal Order of Police has asked the mayor to spend the money on crime intervention and not experimental police practices.