Indy mayoral candidates comment on weekend mass shooting
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Evidence of gunfire was in full display Monday in Indianapolis with boarded-up windows and shattered glass as the result of angry gunfire.
For two weeks in a row, a mass shooting has dominated city resources and police.
Police say an altercation early Sunday inside of a nightclub in the 5900 block of Madison Avenue turned nasty, and led to guns drawn and shots fired. A 22-year-old man died and four people were hurt in the bar shooting.
A week earlier, 10 people were shot, one fatally, at a Halloween party.
Just before noon Monday, both Indianapolis mayoral candidates — incumbent Democrat Joe Hogsett and Republican Jefferson Shreve — asked for voters support at the same location outside the Indianapolis City-County Building, where early voting was happening.
“Too many guns are on the street, Richard. Permitless carry is allowed. Conceal carry is allowed. Open carry is allowed. You can buy a gun at the age of 18, and a lot of people who have no legal business owning guns have guns.” Hogsett told I-Team 8.
Shreve told I-Team 8, “It wasn’t unusual. I mean, it is becoming almost routine to wake up on a Sunday morning and read these stories on your station. I was coming back from church on Sunday and stopped at the scene at Madison Avenue and Edgewood. One man killed and this display of bullets. An evidence tech collecting 200 rounds right there on the south side. It’s a mile from my home.”
Beyond Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the gunfire impacted dozens of people who weren’t even present when the shots were fired.
I-Team 8 asked every business in the nightclub’s plaza to talk about the weekend violence. Everyone declined.
Off-camera, one guy told I-Team 8 that he showed up to work Monday morning and was surprised the window had been shot out.
Another person off-camera told I-Team 8 that bullets hit two windows and went through one wall of a business.
Hogsett said, “There seems to be a new sense, not of urgency, but a new sense of community responsibility. In other words, I think people are starting to recognize that it is not just a challenge for IMPD or the Office of Public Health and Safety, but our neighborhoods, our parents, our community members, they have a role to play.”
Shreve said, “But, there are no consequences for a lot of the gun violence. We must acknowledge that young people pull out a gun, and they are picked up and are back on the street in short order. There are break points in the system, but there have to be consequences that deter people from pulling out a handgun.”
The polls will be open from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday in the mayoral election.