Family member of woman who died in triple shooting: ‘Everybody loved her’
Latest: The Marion County Coroner’s Office identified the woman who died as 18-year-old Lashelle Hewlett.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Family members were understandably hysterical upon learning one of the three shot at Hawthorne Place Apartments on Tuesday afternoon died from her injuries.
The man and another woman shot were hospitalized in serious condition.
Family member Taijuan Patton said the women were his aunt and his cousin, and the man was his cousin’s boyfriend. Patton was unsure which family member was killed when he spoke to News 8, but said it could be his cousin.
“They say that she didn’t have a pulse. That’s all we know right now,” Patton said. “I cried. I got here as fast as I could. I’m still kind of in my head. I just want to know if everybody is OK. My auntie is the other person that got shot.”
Patton wants his family to be known as the people he loves, not just as the people in another shooting in Indianapolis.
Patton said of his cousin, “Let me start off by saying she was a libra. She is a libra. I don’t know if I should say ‘is’ or ‘was,’ but she is a libra. She was funny. She loved her family to death and she will cuss you out in a second. She had an attitude problem. That’s one of the biggest things about her; she had an attitude, but everybody loved it. Everybody loved her.”
When it came to his aunt, Patton spoke highly of her. “She was a protective mother, a protective aunt. She loved all her nieces and nephews and her daughter, of course. She made sure everybody was OK.”
Patton said his cousin’s boyfriend was a good friend and family member. “We have a love-hate relationship, but I love him. I call him my brother. He was a funny person. The people that were around him, he loved them.”
Patton said that there was a fight before the shooting.
“Everybody was out here fighting. That’s basically what it was,” Patton said. “People came back with guns I guess and started shooting.”
Hawthorne Place Apartments are Indianapolis Housing Agency buildings. These are federally funded housing options for low-income families, seniors and families with disabilities. Much of the property was in a state of disrepair. Patton said quality has diminished over time.
“I won’t be over here like that because I know how these apartments are. They need to shut them down. They need to get shut down honestly. I’ve been saying that for a couple of years. It needs to get shut down. It’s not how it used to be when we were kids. My cousin grew up over here, and it ain’t used to be like that. It’s dangerous over here right now. Hawthorne apartments are dangerous.”
The family wants accountability in the face of the tragedy, and called for laws to change to get gun violence under control and reduce youth gun violence.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told News 8 that some people were detained after the fact but were not necessarily suspects in the shooting.
Anyone with information was asked to contact IMPD Detective Daniel Hiatt at 317-327-3475 or daniel.hiatt@indy.gov.
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