Five people were found shot to death in a home in Indianapolis on Sunday morning, a crime that the city’s mayor denounced as a perverse act of “mass murder” that amplified a recent wave of armed violence there.
One of the victims was a pregnant woman, according to authorities, who said efforts to save the fetus were unsuccessful.
Authorities said more than one person may have carried out the shooting and that the victims were the target.
The bloodshed came just days after the mayor and police officers discussed plans to reduce violent crime in Indianapolis, where local media reported there were 245 homicides in 2020 – a record and a 40% increase from 2019.
Mayor Joe Hogsett condemned the violence at a news conference on Sunday afternoon, during which the city’s police chief said the attack was the worst mass shooting in more than a decade in Indianapolis.
“What happened this morning was a mass murder,” said Hogsett, “the choice of an individual or individuals to bring – and I don’t use those words lightly – terror into our community.”
The victims were Kezzie Childs, 42; Raymond Childs Jr., 42; Elijah Childs, 18; Rita Childs, 13; Kiara Hawkins, 19, and her male fetus, said the Coroner’s Office in Marion County.
A sixth victim, described as a young male, was hospitalized with gunshot wounds after being found in a nearby block before the other victims were discovered, police said. Authorities said he should survive.
“What we saw this morning was a different kind of evil,” said Randal Taylor, the city’s chief of police. “There are no right words to say at this point. I myself am heartbroken for the lives that were taken too soon, for the young life that changed forever and for the young life that never had a chance to start, for the neighborhood that has not recovered in the wake of unprecedented violence and for all family members and friends who were shaken by the pain. “
Police said that shortly before 4 am they received a report from a person shot in northeastern Indianapolis. When the police arrived, they found the young male who had suffered gunshot wounds.
Subsequently, the police received information that took them to a nearby house, on 3500 block from Adams Street, where, according to the police, they found five people shot to death.
It was not clear why the victims, at least four of them with the same surname, were the target.
Chief Taylor said the shooting appeared to be an isolated event and that there appeared to be no threat to the public.
“I am angry that the perpetrators felt that they had the right to commit this senseless act in the community, in our community,” he said.
The mayor promised to bring those responsible for the shooting to justice, along with anyone who may have supplied the weapons used in the attack and anyone who was an accomplice to the killers. Hogsett said he had already hired the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana and other law enforcement partners.
“I want those responsible to know that all the power of local, state and federal law enforcement is coming to them,” said Hogsett, declaring: “As I speak, coming to them today, coming to them tonight, coming to them tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, coming to get them as long as it takes to find them. And we will not stop there. “
Chief Taylor noted that the attack was one of several shootings across the city that same night.
“I think it’s worrying that we have to have so many detectives assigned to homicide in the first place,” he said.
Rick Snyder, president of the Indianapolis Police Fraternal Order, criticized the city’s response to recent violence in a series of Twitter posts on Sunday.
“Our neighborhoods across the city are suffering from repeated trauma as a result of increased violence,” said Snyder.
Mr. Hogsett attributed the increase in violent crime in Indianapolis and across the country in part to “the economic and personal anxiety faced by millions of Americans due to a global pandemic”.
“But that is not what happened today,” he said. “This is a crisis of morality, a crisis of conscience. This morning, the city of Indianapolis was the target of an act of depravity that has become very common across the country and will never fail to shock conscience. “