Police investigate ‘warning’ shots fired near officers

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Indianapolis police say someone fired shots near officers early Thursday morning in an incident the department said it will not tolerate.

IMPD received a report from an anonymous caller around 1 a.m. complaining about people loitering in a vacant lot in the 1300 block of West 26th Street.

Responding officers approached a man and a woman sitting in a parked vehicle. During the course of their investigation, IMPD said officers discovered a large bag of what appeared to be marijuana.

The officers asked the man in the driver’s seat to get out of the vehicle but said the subject did not cooperate, eventually leading officers to use a taser.

According to IMPD’s deputy chief of patrol, Valerie Cunningham, the officers were finishing paperwork for that investigation when multiple shots were fired.

“Based on my experience as a law enforcement officer, those shots were fired as a message to our officers,” Cunningham said. “The people that are performing illegal activities… Did not like the fact that we have stepped up our enforcement.”

Cunningham said officers have responded to the neighborhood more frequently on narcotics complaints and other crimes.

When officers radioed about the shots fired, IMPD dispatched SWAT and K-9 units.

“I hope they saw the response that we put up against these shots. We’ll gather that evidence and collect that but I can tell you that it will not deter our officers from coming into this area to try to clean up the area for the community and the people who live here,” Cunningham said.

IMPD said no officers were injured nor were vehicles or homes damaged from the gunfire.