Two homicides in less than a week for north side Indianapolis neighborhood
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department continues to search for the person responsible for shooting and killing an Indianapolis teenager on the north side.
It happened in the 4300 block of Evanston Avenue on Tuesday before 3 p.m.
This is the second homicide for that neighborhood in less than a week.
The Marion County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as 19-year-old Donald Allender, Jr. About a mile away from that crime scene, a 20-year-old man was shot while sitting on his front porch on April 16.
A “no trespassing” sign can be seen from the front window of a home, where police say just steps away from the front door, Allender, Jr. was found shot to death on the sidewalk.
“It concerns us that two people were virtually killed almost in the same area,” said Reverend Charles Harrison, Barnes United Methodist Church.
It was less than a week ago when police found 20-year-old Jimmy Baxter, near 46th Street and Carrollton Street. Baxter was shot multiple times less than five minutes away.
“We’re going to see this violence continues to escalate among our teens and we really don’t want to see that,” said Rev. Harrison. “It’s busy out there right now on the streets with a lot of our teens. We got to get a handle on that.”
Rev. Harrison believes something needs to be done to address the growing teen violence. He’s just worried that with summer right around the corner that it’s only going to get worse.
“Our concerns is we go into the summer time, we don’t really have a youth summer job program in place,” said Rev. Harrison.
Harrison believes a summer job program could help to keep teens busy. He’s hoping to meet with Indianapolis city leaders to come up with funding.
“This is April and we’re seeing an increase in juvenile homicides. It’s not warm yet, but it’s going to get warm. If we don’t do something I’m just afraid we’re going to have a long, hot summer,” said Rev. Harrison.
Harrison says last year they were able to raise around $85,000 for job programs, including Clean for Green. That money came from different church groups, businesses, and the Public Safety Foundation. Harrison says they were able to hire around 400 teens.
“We need them right now more than ever to help provide resources for summer job programs. If we can find $4 million dollars for IMPD for equipment and other things they need, which we support,” said Rev. Harrison, “We ought to be able to find a million or two to provide job for youths, particularly in these high crime neighborhoods across the city.”
Police tell 24-Hour News 8 they could not confirm any connections to the homicides at this time.
24-Hour News 8 did some digging and found a police report from last year, in which both of the victims were arrested on gun and drug related charges.
Police are asking for the public’s help to solve these cases. If you know anything, you’re asked to call Crime Stoppers at 317-262- 8477.
