Thread: Police report 7 slayings in 8 hours in Indianapolis

Police report 7 slayings in 8 hours in Indianapolis

Bill McCleery, The Indianapolis Star11:50 a.m. EST February 21, 2014

A total of five males and two females were fatally shot in separate homes.


(Photo: Robert Scheer/The Star)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Two men were fatally shot in a home just after 12:30 a.m. Friday
• A teen was killed earlier Thursday, and four people were found shot to death in a home around 8 p.m. Thursday
• Few details are known about any of the incidents

INDIANAPOLIS — Two killings early Friday have police investigating a staggering seven deaths in eight hours.

Two people were fatally shot just after 12:30 a.m. Friday. Those deaths came on the heels of a single shooting death and a quadruple homicide on the city's Southeastside late Thursday.

Police found two men — Michael Whitfield, 27, and Lorenzo Clark Jr., 22, both of Indianapolis — inside a home, said Lt. Chris Bailey of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

One man was pronounced dead at the scene, Bailey said, and another died after being taken to Eskenazi Hospital in critical condition.

"Detectives have very little information about what led to this shooting," Bailey said in a release.

In the first killing of the eight-hour period, Quinton Nance, 16, Indianapolis, was shot about 4:50 p.m. on East 23rd Street.

The victims in Thursday's homicides have been identified as They are Hayley Navarra, 21; Kristy Mae Sanchez, 22; Jacob Rodemich, 43; and Walter Burnell, 47, all of Indianapolis..

Bailey said the motive and circumstances of the shootings in a home on South Parker Avenue, are unknown at this time.

Bailey said people who knew the victims saw their bodies and called 911 at about 8 p.m.

Detectives are still talking to neighbors and possible witnesses.

Indianapolis police officers talk during a rain storm at the scene where four people were reportedly shot on the south side, 3400 South Parker, Thursday, February 19, 2014. Robert Scheer/The Star

Animal control officers also were at the scene to deal with live animals found inside the house.

Josh Davis, 26, who lives a block from the shootings, said there is drug dealing in the neighborhood but little violence.

"You see the cars come through at all hours of the night, then leave, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on," Davis said. "But I've never seen a fight in the street or heard gunshots at night, anything like that."

Davis said many of the residents of the modest one-story ranch homes are elderly.

"That keeps it quiet around here," Davis said. "I know my immediate neighbors and everyone is friendly."

Another neighbor, Christina Wood, who lives three blocks away, said she was watching her and her friend's children in a house just a few doors down when the shootings occurred. She didn't hear gunshots, she said, but she heard the sirens.

"I'm a nervous wreck," Wood said as she lit a cigarette on the front porch of her friend's house on Parker Avenue.

As of Friday there have been 27 homicides in Indianapolis, according to an unofficial tally by The Indianapolis Star.

A community activist with the Ten Point Coalition blamed an "increasingly violent culture" for the increased number of homicide deaths.

"It's complex because it goes beyond that segment that we would like to say are criminals or who are out to do bad or have bad intentions," the Rev. Charles Ellis said. "We certainly have a segment like that, but we also have people who in many regards are everyday people, but they have chosen to solve situations by shooting one another. Every time it happens, it cripples the spirit of our community. It's sad that we have degenerated to this level."

Solutions are not easy, Ellis acknowledged. But he believes church groups and others are making a difference by spending time in neighborhoods, counseling youths and encouraging families.

"We need all hands on deck," he said. "We cannot be weary in what we're doing to try to improve our community. In the minds of some, it might seem like what we are doing is not working, but we still have to get out there and talk to people and win people and convince them there is a better way. We need to promote very overtly the sanctity of life and talk to people about how life is valuable and a gift.

"Once you make the decision to take someone's life, you can't give it back and make that right."

Ellis also called for stricter gun laws and stiffer penalties for crimes committed with the use of guns.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...hours/5672155/

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With record unemployment (nobody wants to work anyway) and cartel drugs on every corner, there's lots of money to be made off of dope.

The cartels are using gringos as mules to take in more of the haul.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

1. Indy mayor, police chief respond to 8 murders in 12 hours
   
   Fox 59‎

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The faces of crack cocaine addicts?