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Ten Point Coalition leader shares strong words about Indy’s murder record

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The leader of Indy’s Ten Point Coalition is speaking out after the city broke the murder record. Late Wednesday night, Reverend Charles Harrison lit up Twitter with strong words about the violence.

The latest homicide in Indianapolis was that of man’s body found engulfed in flames late Wednesday night. The death was ruled a murder on Thursday and early Friday morning, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officials, released the identity of the victim, 46-year-old Marcus Ford. IMPD said an autopsy showed Ford had a fatal gunshot wound before his body was burned.

Harrison says there is talk that other people have been murdered and their bodies burned.

In other cases, Harrison said police are misclassifying some deaths as self-defense when they are actually murders, which prevents families and victims from getting the justice they deserve.

“People are feeling very scared out there right now, because some of the self-defense homicides are justifiable. People in the streets were saying different things that happened that they were really murders. I really felt like the real message about what’s going on in the streets needed to get out there,” Harrison said. “People are carrying their guns with them now out of fear and I don’t want it to lead to more and more violence that we are seeing particularly on the east side of Indy.”

He said only the community can change that.

“We’ve gotta get people to speak up and not be afraid to provide information they know to police and stop trying to take justice into their own hands, cause it only creates more and more violence,” Harrison said.

Harrison also tweeted about crime statistics in neighborhoods where the Ten Point Coalition patrols. He said the difference in those west side communities, compared to the east side, is the community-police partnership.