Shooting at Indy After‑Prom Party Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Hurt
Shooting at Indianapolis After‑Prom Party Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Hurt
INDIANAPOLIS — After-prom party decorations remain in the driveway of a large two-story yellow home at the corner of 40th Street and North College Avenue. A woman was killed and two other people were wounded in a shooting on the property early Sunday morning.
Area residents told FOX59/CBS4 that, not only did the shooting appear targeted, but it came in two rounds to inflict even more damage on partygoers fleeing the scene.
“I heard some gunfire, and I went to the window, and I saw a car backing up the street,” said one neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous. “A white hatchback went a little bit past my house, and it stopped and then it went by again. I could hear shots again coming both ways. I saw the car backing up the street with the lights off, and I didn’t know what was going on, and it seemed a little suspicious. And so I just was watching, and then all of a sudden, they started slowly creeping that way.
“It was like they were waiting for folks to come outside to go back out again. At least for me, it sounded like they were shooting and then people from the house were shooting back at them.”
A photograph posted on social media hours before the shooting showed a person brandishing two large semi-automatic rifles in the home’s driveway in front of the after-prom decorations.
“My wife showed me a picture of folks out in front of this very distinctive yellow house, and they were holding up automatic firearms and handguns,” said one neighbor while washing blood off the sidewalk where a victim staggered up the street. “So yeah, there were guns at the house.”
Neighbors described three volleys of gunfire that resulted in IMPD’s recovery of approximately 80 shell casings.
“There were so many of them going off that I didn’t register it as gunfire at first just because there were so many of them,” said neighbor Zach Thames. “But then you hear people start screaming and yelling out the window, and people kind of running around hiding and stuff, and then there was second, maybe even a third round of gunshots.”
Thames said the street had been packed all night with the cars of young people attending the party at the house on the corner.
“People ducking behind cars and stuff running up that alley about two houses down from where it went down,” said Thames. “The screams were frantic, and after all the pops and stuff, clearly something had happened.”
IMPD dispatch audio revealed the chaos that greeted arriving officers:
“Cars rush. 40th and Central. 40th and Park.”
“There’s probably over a hundred people in here when the shots rang off.”
“Any officer that is coming out here, clear all these juveniles out of here right now.”
The shooting left residents in a quiet north side neighborhood rattled.
“To hear people say it was an after-prom party too,” said Thames, “I don’t know if it was a kid who was doing the shooting or anything like that but just bad judgment sucks. There’s no other way to put it.”
As IMPD homicide detectives continue the hunt for the shooters, anyone with information is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at (317) 262-8477.
