IMPD chiefs, FOP leader address 7 weekend murders
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Saturday night was the second time this year the city faced a mass murder.
The chief of police said two of the shootings this weekend were related to domestic violence; the others happened as people resolved their issues with violence.
Randal Taylor, chief of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said Monday morning, “Seven Indianapolis residents were murdered and taken from our neighborhoods at the hand of violence.”
The murder rate in Indianapolis is on track to shatter the record-breaking numbers of 2020.
One weekend shooting victim was a 7-year-old child who died in a house on Randolph Street. The suspect in that shooting, Malik Halfacre, 25, is no stranger to IMPD; he was arrested in May 2017 for shooting a man five times.
Rick Snyder, president of the Fraternal Order of Police No. 86 in Indianapolis, says his organization warned the city a year and a half ago that crime trends indicted a surge in violence was coming. “We are now not just seeing individual acts of violence, but we are seeing these mass incidents of violence over and over again.”
Snyder says Halfacre and similar suspects know the criminal justice system in Marion County is not working.
According to court records, Halfacre was charged in 2017 with aggravated battery, carrying a handgun without a license, and pointing a gun at another person. The first two charges were dropped; he accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to eight months in jail.
Snyder said, “But when you have a broken system that is this revolving door, that is simply cycling repeat convicted violent offenders back into our neighborhoods, it proves the point we have been making for two years now that if it is predictable, it is preventable.”
Craig McCartt, IMPD’s deputy chief of investigations, says the department has made arrests in 69% of its cases in 2021. “It is a real misfortune when we become numb to that kind of violence and certainly it is not something our community can tolerate. We have to decide we are not going to stand for this, and we have seen the community come forward and stand up, so I think we are hopefully turning a corner.”
The IMPD chief, the FOP leader and members of the clergy say the solution to the city’s violence will require everyone to stand up and demand action.
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- 1 person killed in shooting on northeast side
- 1 killed, 4 injured in overnight shooting
- Man, 28, arrested in woman’s fatal shooting at southeast-side apartment
- Man in custody after SWAT situation as police investigate Saturday shooting that left 4 dead
- Juvenile shot on city’s southwest side