INDIANAPOLIS — A 16-year-old is dead, and a second person is hospitalized following a double shooting on Indy’s near northwest side.
The teenage victim was found dead in the street Thursday night.
Police are still investigating a motive, but the case marks the first juvenile homicide victim as the result of gun violence so far in the city this year.
IMPD was first called to West 25th Street between I-65 and MLK around 8 p.m. Thursdayand found 16-year-old Keith Louis Ray dead in the street.
Just minutes later, a second victim, believed to be connected to the same crime, showed up in critical condition at Methodist Hospital with gunshot wounds.
Police admitted overnight, the cause of the violence was a mystery.
“We do not have any idea what happened,” said IMPD captain Don Weilhammer. “I’ll be real honest. We don’t have any firearms on the scene or any real evidence.”
Although some neighbors reported hearing the gunshots, police haven’t found any direct witnesses to the killing and are still asking for the public’s help.
The 16-year-old is the first juvenile shot to death in Indianapolis this year. That is significantly fewer compared to the same time over the previous five years.
“Even though it’s the first juvenile shooting homicide in the city this year, there’s still a lot of concern about juvenile violence in the city,” said reverend Charles Harrison.
Reverend Harrison’s church sits less than a mile north of the scene.
He insists a lot of work still needs to be done to reduce youth gun violence.
In recent years, the number of underage homicide victims has risen to record-setting numbers and many of the underlying causes of remain.
Ray’s death marks the second overall juvenile homicide victim this year, after a 5-year-old girl died from malnutrition this week, but that case did not involve gun violence.
While there haven’t been any previous youth homicides stemming from gun violence this year there have been several high-profile incidents of youth violence, including several juveniles shot during a disturbance downtown.
“We’re still concerned about the proliferation of unlawful guns on the streets in the hands of juveniles,” said Harrison. “Although we’re down from where we were in previous years, we feel like we still have a long way to go.”
No arrests have been made, and there is no suspect description.
Anyone with information about this incident should call Detective David Miller at the IMPD Homicide Office at 317-327-3475 or e-mail the detective at David.Miller2@indy.gov.
Alternatively, they can call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477 or (TIPS) to remain anonymous.
