INDIANAPOLIS — Officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department continue to investigate a pair of shootings downtown that wounded six people and damaged multiple buildings along the canal and Monument Circle.
Court records show an 18-year-old suspect was arrested following the canal shooting.
Hearing gunfire along the canal early Saturday morning and seeing his friends and cousin shot, 18-year-old Cortez Starks reportedly confessed he returned fire, then gave his gun to a friend and stayed on scene until police arrived.
Starks was arrested for unlawful weapons possession after he was charged just a week earlier with felony possession of a machine gun. Court records show Starks had been released from jail on the prior weapons charge 11 days before the canal shooting.
On Sunday, three more people were wounded and a 16-year-old was arrested for weapons charges following a separate shooting on Monument Circle that also shattered multiple windows.
Community leaders hope kids across the city learn a lesson from the weekend violence downtown.
“Bullets don’t have eyes. Somebody could have been killed. We have to wake up,” said Rev. Malachi Walker with Young Men Inc.
Walker spent the day at his annual Young Men Inc. youth summer camp preaching gun safety. His 18-year-old chief counselor said that kids having guns often stems from fear and peer pressure.
“Lots of people feel if someone else has a gun then I need to have one and I’m trying to change the agenda that instead of being in fear and feel like you need to have a gun, it should be acceptable to just be a kid,” said Messiah Belton.
“We need to do a better job educating our kids,” Walker said. “It’s all about making good choices and decisions.”
After the shootings, Indy’s FOP president urged the court system to hold youth offenders responsible when they come downtown and commit crimes.
Rick Snyder wrote, “Adult and juvenile offenders consistently demonstrate their lack of concern for accountability for such behavior. Indianapolis police officers are calling for backup from a criminal justice system that ensures accountability.”
Because he was on pretrial release, Starks is temporarily being held without bond pending an initial hearing.
Anyone with information on either shooting is still asked to contact either IMPD or Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.
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