Indianapolis police have arrested a minor in connection with the fatal shooting of 5 people, including a pregnant woman
Indianapolis Metro Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the shooting deaths of five people and an unborn child, police said Monday.
Police are not identifying the suspect and did not provide any additional details because the individual is a juvenile.
They would not comment to CNN on what connection, if any, the suspect may have had with those who died, though on Sunday police said that they did not believe the shooting was random.
“Detectives do not believe any additional persons were involved,” a police press release said.
The shooting occurred early Sunday on Indianapolis’ northeast side, police said. A juvenile was in critical condition after being shot, police said.
“While removing the alleged perpetrator of yesterday’s mass murder from our neighborhoods does not bring back the lives senselessly lost, hopefully, it will bring us one step closer to healing as a community,” police Chief Randal Taylor said Monday.
Speaking Sunday, Taylor said the incident was the city’s largest mass casualty shooting in more than a decade and appeared to be “mass murder.”
IMPD officers responded to a report of a person shot just before 4 a.m. Sunday and found a wounded juvenile male, IMPD spokesman Shane Foley said.
Officers received information that led them to another residence less than a block away, where they found five people — including a pregnant woman — dead, Foley said.
“Despite the best lifesaving efforts provided by medical staff, both the female and the unborn child did not survive,” he said. “The juvenile male that was shot is expected to survive his injuries.”
Marion County chief deputy coroner Alfarena McGinty identified the victims as Kezzie Childs, 42; Raymond Childs, 42; Elijah Childs, 18; Rita Childs, 13; Kiara Hawkins, 19; and Hawkins’ unborn baby.
Police haven’t announced a motive.
“To take a whole family out like that…I just don’t understand,” neighbor Vicki Pinkston told CNN affiliate WTHR.
She said she recently dropped off baby items for the expectant mother.
“I had just given them some stuff from my great-grandson when he was born, but he is bigger now. The baby was due next month,” Pinkston told WTHR.
Mayor Joe Hogsett said Sunday that the city has worked for a decade to “address the deadly confluence of guns, substance abuse, and poverty that has seen our city’s homicide rate rise to historic highs.”
The city had 215 criminal homicides in 2020 — the most ever in one year, according to an Indianapolis Star analysis of crime statistics.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the suspect’s status. The suspect has been arrested. CNN has not confirmed if the individual has been charged.
