Make wishtv.com your home page

Police review video after pawn shop employee shot

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Police said Tuesday they were reviewing security video from a northwest side pawn shop where a robbery and shooting happened Monday night.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department identified the victim Tuesday as Miguel Morales, an employee of the First Cash Pawn shop, 2810 Westlane Road. It’s in the Augusta Plaza strip mall, near West 71st Street and North Michigan Road.

Police said Morales was shot in the chest and was in critical condition at St. Vincent Indianapolis hospital. Police officers were looking for three men who ran from the shop in masks.

Joe Dorantes runs a barber shop around the corner from the pawn shop. He said he planned to visit his friend, Morales, after work Tuesday.

“We see him all the time,” Dorantes said. “He’s a great guy. We are very concerned about his health right now.”

IMPD said its officers are reviewing security video from inside the store but they cannot release it to the public.

“It concerns me because we don’t know if these guys are going to come back,” Dorantes said. “We don’t know what to expect.”

Dorantes said crime near 71st Street and Michigan Road drove him to install cameras inside his barber shop.

Police said, in an unrelated case last August, someone shot a 19-year-old woman in the neighborhood. In July, detectives found a dead man with burns and gunshot wounds.

“Everything around this neighborhood frustrates me,” Howard Brewer said.

Brewer cleans at a business near the pawn shop.

“It never should have happened to him like this. He’s respectful,” Brewer said. “It just hurt my heart to even know that.”

Dorantes said he closed his shop early Monday after the shooting.

He’s hoping he’ll soon see his friend around the corner again.

“We’re just hoping that never happens to us in here man,” Dorantes said.

First Cash Pawn was not open Tuesday. A sign on the door said the business would open again Wednesday.

Crime Map
Use Search Bars Above To Search Crime Data