Police: Lawrence Central students shot walking from school in targeted attack
LAWRENCE, Ind. (WISH) — Two students walking who’d left early from Lawrence Central High School were shot Monday morning on an I-465 overpass for 46th Street in what Lawrence Police Department is called a targeted attack.
Lawrence police Capt. Tracey Cantrell told News 8, “Once again, here we are with a situation of another shooting. Indianapolis has their fair share, and now we are starting to see it progress here in the city of Lawrence.”
Police responded around 9:40 a.m. Monday to the 4600 block of North Hartman Drive. Officers on the edge of the street found two teenage boys, believed to be ages 15 and 16, had been shot when someone in a vehicle opened fire on them.
Cantrell said, “Unfortunately, as you see, there has been … You go to look at the stats of the shootings here recently, and the ages 14-20 is like what Indianapolis is seeing right now as far as shootings.”
One boy was shot in the shoulder; the other boy in the leg. A third teenager was not hurt. Police described their condition as serious but stable before they were taken to a hospital.
Police say they don’t have a description of the suspect vehicle. The teens told police they didn’t recognize the car or the shooter.
The police captain said, “A lot of times, because they do know who the assailants are, they don’t want to speak because they are scared or whatever the case may be. We try to ensure that, you know, give us that information because they could potentially harm someone else, but you can’t force someone who doesn’t want to talk and, hopefully, they don’t do the vigilante justice that people are seeing today to want to handle that themselves.”
Police are not talking about a lot of the evidence recovered, but say they recovered at least one shell casing, which turned over to the National Crime Gun Intelligence Center Initiative.
The high school and the nearby Belzer Middle School and Harrison Hill Elementary were put on lockdown after the shooting report.
