IMPD: ‘Tempers are high’ after 4-year-old boy shot inside Airbnb home
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department public information officer on Wednesday asked for people’s help to solve the shooting of a 4-year-old boy inside an Airbnb home on Tuesday night.
The boy, who has not been identified by IMPD, was last reported as being stable and treated for serious injuries at Riley Hospital for Children.
IMPD and medics were sent to a report of a person shot just before 9:15 p.m. Tuesday in a residential area in the 2900 block of North Delaware Street.
Officer William Young said Wednesday, “The investigation is still active and ongoing. It’s certainly frustrating to our officers as you can imagine. Our officers try to be as responsive as we can, but a lot of our officers and paramedics and fire personnel have children of their own, so you can imagine what’s on the mind of our officers and first responders whenever we receive a call like that. It’s certainly disturbing.”
Young said it is especially difficult when an innocent child is shot. “Tempers are high. Emotions are high and our main thing is, No. 1, to make sure the child is being attended to medically, and we also want to secure the scene for witnesses per say. We want to protect the integrity of the investigation.”
“Whenever we have a child or a toddler struck by gunfire it’s unnecessary, No. 1,” said Young. “But, this should wake the community up, per se, and they should want to give us this information. We want to find this individual, and the message to this individual if you’re watching this: You need to turn yourself in.”
Lt. Shane Foley of the IMPD public affairs office, said outside the shooting scene on Tuesday night that “this does appear to be targeted at this, at least at this residence, but I can’t say if it was at the individuals inside. It does not appear it was a random act.”
Foley also said Tuesday night that the family, who he thinks is from Indianapolis, has been going through another tragedy, which he though was inappropriate to share Tuesday night as the family dealt with the injured boy.
Airbnb, a short-term home rental agency, issued a statement, saying in part “out of an abundance of caution and for the privacy of our host, we have temporarily deactivated this listing.”
IMPD has been reviewing evidence including video from nearby houses. Officers have asking anyone with cameras to please turn over that video to investigators.
Anyone with more information about the shooting was asked to contact the IMPD aggravated assault office at 317-327-3475 or, to remain anonymous, Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.
