Community groups call for peace after recent violence, funeral shooting
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Community groups are hoping to keep the peace in the streets of Indianapolis to prevent what they’re calling a potential gang war.
The renewed conversation comes just one day after three people were shot during a funeral procession.
Police identified one of the victims as 28-year-old Richard Grundy III, a man investigators believe is the leader of a dangerous gang.
Sources told 24-Hour News 8 there is a $60,000 bounty on Grundy’s head. His criminal record includes a list of pending charges from drugs to conspiracy to commit murder.
The Marion County Prosecutor dropped four murder charges against Grundy in April 2016 after a spokesperson said a witness in the case failed to appear for depositions and lied about her identity.
Grundy’s next court hearing is scheduled for next week.
Former Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Rick Hite remembers working on the Grundy case during his time. He believes Thursday’s shooting could be a form of street justice.
“It tells you a lot when you have that kind of bounty on the head of someone, who obviously knows he should not be on the street and in the environment where he was shot but certainly not the point where you have innocent people,” said Hite.
24-Hour News 8 learned a group of pastors met with current police chief Bryan Roach Friday afternoon to talk about the recent violence. Community groups are hoping to put a stop to that violence.
Community groups like the Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition and Peace in the Streets are doing everything they can, with help from volunteers, to make sure the violence on Thursday doesn’t continue on through the weekend.
The groups are calling for peace after the recent violence in the city from a triple homicide at Somerset Apartments, where police arrested a 15-year-old boy, to a funeral procession shooting that injured three people.
“It’s absolute travesty what’s going on, but we have to do better as a community,” said Aaron Williams, director of Peace in The Streets.
Williams is the director of the violence prevention group Peace in the Streets, which focuses is to reduce violence in Indianapolis and surrounding communities, educate, empower and encourage people to take a non-violence approach.
“We have to work together if we want to see our city do better, if we want to see the city of Indianapolis be a safe place, that’s going to take cooperation from everyone involved,” he explained.
He believes what happened during the funeral procession could have been prevented.
“We feel like if everyone could come together and say, ‘What is it that we need to do?’ and unify, we can prevent that from happening. What happened yesterday, it’s preventable,” he said.
Police said the shooting victims had non-life threatening injuries and identified them as 32-year-old Renee Fisher, 62-year-old Barbara Wilson and 28-year-old Richard Grundy III.
24-Hour News 8 learned Grundy was attending a funeral for his cousin, 28-year-old Jasmine Moore. She was shot and killed July 9 on the city’s west side.
“People know who these criminals are people know who are involved in these different gang related shootings,” said Williams. “The best thing that you could do is give that information to police. The best thing that you could do is help that individual turn themselves in.”
Williams said it’s time to break the cycle that’s been affecting our community for years.
“This culture of no snitching is absolutely nonsense. It’s not a matter of not snitching, it’s a matter of caring for your community,” he said. “It’s a matter of seeing something and saying something because you don’t want to lose a loved one.”
Peace in the Streets is organizing a community town hall meeting for next month. Local ministers in the community are also planning a prayer vigil for next Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Sutherland Cemetery as a show of solidarity against violence in our city.