Crime Issues Have Gotten Better In Broad Ripple Since June Shooting

Source: PHOTO: WISH TV

INDIANAPOLIS — You may remember when three people were killed and one other person was hurt in a shooting in Broad Ripple in late June.

Since then business owners in the north Indianapolis neighborhood have been taking some security measures of their own, in order to try and prevent a shooting like that from happening again. So far they say they are working.

“Right now, we haven’t had any major issues, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t,” said Jordan Dillon, president of the Broad Ripple Village Association, on WISH-TV.

Broad Ripple is a popular place to go eat and drink for Indy residents, many times people stay well into the wee hours of the morning.

A few days after the shooting happened, businesses agreed to start closing at around 1 a.m. instead of 3 a.m. every night. They say closing earlier would encourage crowds in the neighborhood each night to disperse much sooner and thus leave fewer chances for any crime to happen.

“Of course, there is always additional things that we could be doing and that we would like to see be done in the area,” Dillon added. “Right now, these are the things we feel we are actually able to do and can actually get done.”

Some business owners say even though things are a little better, they are still getting several unruly people coming to Broad Ripple. Austin Turk is the general manager of the HopCat Bar an Grill and said he believes these unruly people are using the Red Line Bus to get to and from Broad Ripple.

“Sometimes, we’ve had some issues with them bothering our employees, with them just coming in and either spilling their drinks or just acting a fool,” Turk said.

The HopCat closes before midnight each night. It’s done that even since before the June shooting. Still, Turk is worried that he may start seeing a dip in the number of patrons his bar sees if people continue to feel unsafe in Broad Ripple.