Shooting at Motel on Indy’s East Side Injures a Person

INDIANAPOLIS — A person was shot at a troubled motel on the east side of Indianapolis Tuesday evening.

According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, officers were called to the Budget 8 Inn — which is located at 6850 E. 21st St. just before 11 p.m. to investigate a shooting. When police arrived at the scene, they located a victim with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.

IMPD initially indicated that the victim was in stable condition. Police later confirmed that the victim’s condition was reported to be critical sometime after medics took him to a local hospital.

Investigators believe the shooting occurred in room No. 259 inside the Budget 8 Inn. Law enforcement has suggested that the shooting was the result of some sort of argument that had broken out inside the motel room. For that reason, police do not believe the shooting poses any active or ongoing threat to the community.

It is currently unclear if IMPD has identified or detained any suspects or persons of interest at this point in its investigation of the shooting. Police have confirmed that they are working to speak with witnesses who may have seen the shooting and obtain security camera video that may have captured the aftermath of the incident.

Investigators are encouraging those with information on the shooting to call IMPD at (317) 327-3475 or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at (317) 262-8477.

“We’ve talked about it numerous times before, about conflict resolution,” IMPD Night Watch Captain Don Weilhammer said during a media briefing at the Budget 8 Inn Tuesday night. “Don’t resort to violence. If you can’t talk it out, ask for someone (to be) a mediator to go in between. If that still doesn’t work, walk away. It’s not worth somebody getting seriously injured or killed for these types of arguments.”

FOX59/CBS4 has covered numerous instances of violence at the Budget 8 Inn in recent months and years. On May 14, a 30-year-old man was shot and killed at the motel.

Another man was shot at the inn in September 2025. At the time of the shooting, IMPD indicated that the man was in stable condition.

Between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2023, IMPD investigated five homicides at the Budget 8 Inn. In June 2023, a person was killed at the motel in “execution-like” fashion.

FOX59/CBS4 spoke with the owner of the Budget 8 Inn in April 2024. At the time, he indicated he had installed 40 surveillance cameras around the property to try to curb the violence the motel has seen.

After the September 2025 shooting at the motel, IMPD Night Watch Captain John Arvin indicated that the Budget 8 Inn’s cameras had been added to IMPD’s B-Link system. Investigators can access cameras added to their B-Link systems in real time.

“The owner of this business is very cooperative with police,” Arvin said in September 2025. “And they have multiple cameras in the area that are all linked to our B-Link system. So, our people at the real-time crime center can tap into those and see if anybody left on foot, left in a vehicle and things like that.”

As of this article’s publication, no additional information on Tuesday’s shooting at the Budget 8 Inn had been made available.