‘He was going to kill me’: Victims speak out after man’s violent rampage on Indy’s south side

INDIANAPOLIS — Two families have been forever changed after a violent and seemingly random rampage left one man shot and another woman badly beaten in a neighborhood on the south side of Indianapolis.

No one ever expects, while driving on a busy street to pick up dinner, for bullets to suddenly fly at them, but it happened to 34-year-old James Flora.

“He called me and said, ‘I’ve been shot,'” Samantha Flora recalled. “I said, ‘what?’ He said, ‘I’ve been shot.'”

Flora’s wife, Samantha, said James has been in the hospital since Saturday. He’s only able to move his hands and open his eyes, for now, while she and their five children try to make sense of a crime that can only be described as senseless.

“There’s a hundred things that could’ve happened,” Samantha said. “I was just thinking of all the worst possibilities.”

A witness captured video of the armed suspect pointing a rifle at cars at random in broad daylight before firing at James’ truck, which caused James to crash into a fence. Then, police said the suspect, 22-year-old Chris Perry, took off down Troy Avenue.

“He just came running in with a big old gun,” said Tammy Echeverria.

Tammy Echeverria overheard the shots from inside her house. The next sound she heard was her door being kicked in.

“He kept putting the gun to my head,” Echeverria said. “After he’d hit me with it, he’d put it to my head and said he was going to kill me. I almost died. I’ve had a lot of stuff happen to me, but that was kind of scary. When they say your life flashes, it does.”

According to a police report from September, officers were once called to Perry’s house because he was suicidal, so they took him into emergency custody. Perry was deemed a “dangerous person” in court shortly after and hasn’t been legally allowed to own a gun since.

That’s part of the reason Echeverria said she no longer feels safe. Plus, according to online court records, Perry’s bond was set at $100,000 with a 10% cash bond.

“He can get out for $10,000, and he shouldn’t be able to because he’s on video doing this like it’s OK,” Echeverria said. “Then comes in here where I’m supposed to feel safe and kicks the door in and starts beating the hell out of me and making me think it’s going to be my last few minutes on Earth, getting beat by somebody I don’t even know.”

Police credit a witness who flagged officers down with helping them find Perry. The witness told them they saw Perry break into a random house. While investigating, detectives found 16 shell casings in the street.

“We’re never going to forget this,” Echeverria said. “I’m always going to be watching my back now. I sit in the bathroom until my roommates get home with the door locked and the window open so I can go out it. That’s not fair, you know?”

“I keep hoping that I can wake up and it be just a nightmare,” Samantha said. “I really do. Hug your loved ones a little tighter. It could happen to anybody.”