IMPD on mass shooting: ‘No one deserves to die at 16 years old because they go to a party’
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A 16-year-old girl died and nine other people, from age 16-21, were hurt in Sunday’s shooting in a business park on the northeast side, Indianapolis police say.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department say it’s picked up at least six guns from the crime scene. Investigators don’t know how many rounds were fired, or how many people were pulling triggers. IMPD says witnesses are keeping quiet.
Police have not made any arrests associated with the shootings at the Halloween party that drew hundreds of people.
IMPD Deputy Chief Kendale Adams said Monday during a news conference, “So, I’m begging you to come forward with information. No one deserves to die at 16 years old because they go to a party.”
The shooting during a Halloween party happened just after midnight Saturday at a business park in the 5100 block of East 65th Street, which sits east of the former Nickel Plate Road railroad line and west of Binford Boulevard.
Word of the party spread on social media and, before midnight Saturday, hundreds of teenagers and young adults were packed into the business park’s parking lot. Many of the teenagers and young adults were drinking.
The chaos in the parking lot hadn’t been unnoticed; someone had called the cops to break up the party. Two IMPD officers were across the street when the shooting started, and the shooting happened from both inside a building in the business park and in its parking lot.
Adams says the party promoter used social media, specifically a private Snapchat channel, to get the word out. Money was collected with a cash app.
The cops plan to search those accounts. Adams said, “We will do search warrants. I will tell parents that you need to be very vigilant about what your children are doing on social media.”
Police say the 16-year-old girl was shot and killed at the entrance to the building where the party was happening.
Investigators recovered several firearms from people that IMPD caught at the party. Adams says those firearms have been turned over to the crime lab for ballistics testing. “We recovered six firearms at the scene and numerous shell casings, too many to count here today. That information will be compared with all of our ballistic evidence to help us determine who may have purchased these guns.”
With cellphones in almost everyone’s hand these days, the cops begged Monday for witnesses to the mass shooting to come forward.
“There were several hundred people there. Somebody saw something. Somebody recorded something on their cellphone. The media is getting stories about what occurred, and they are asking us things we don’t even know, so I’m begging you to come foreword with information,” Adams said.