Indianapolis police looking for suspects in the fatal shooting of five people and an unborn child
No arrests or suspects have been announced in what the Indianapolis police chief calls the city’s largest mass casualty shooting in more than a decade.
Five people and an unborn child were killed early Sunday on Indianapolis’ northeast side, police said. A juvenile was also in critical condition after being shot, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Randal Taylor said.
“What occurred this morning, based on the evidence that’s been gathered so far, was mass murder,” Taylor said. “More than that, we believe it was not random.
“There are no right words to say at this time … our community must come to terms with the largest mass casualty shooting in more than a decade.”
Police haven’t announced a motive. They say more than one shooter may have been involved.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (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.
Mayor Joe Hogsett said he has asked federal authorities for help and that investigators will try to determine if the guns used in the shootings were “illegally possessed.”
The mayor said 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.
