Sunday Slaying Marks 9th In 8 Days
Rick Hightower
WRTV 6 News Reporter/Anchor
POSTED: 10:29 pm EDT May 16, 2010
UPDATED: 7:19 am EDT May 17, 2010
INDIANAPOLIS -- The weekend shooting of a man on Indianapolis' northeast side pushed the city's criminal homicide rate over 50 for the year.
Julian Brown was killed early Sunday after he kicked in the door of his ex-girlfriend's apartment in the 4200 block of North Shadeland Avenue, police said.
The slaying marked the city's 51st homicide in 2010 and the ninth in the last eight days, 6News' Rick Hightower reported.
"The number of homicides we've had in the last week is really strange," said Indianapolis Police Chief Paul Ciesielski.
In a summer crime-fighting blitz, the department has assigned an additional 130 officers to areas within the northern and eastern parts of the city deemed problem areas.
While the effort has cut the rate of other violent crimes, Ciesielski said the homicide problem persists.
"None of these homicides have occurred in these targeted areas, and it's impossible to predict where the next homicide is going to be," he said.
Sunday night, about 20 people gathered on the porch of a home at 85 N. Holmes Ave., where two people were shot and killed last weekend.
Police said that case, like so many others, was linked to illegal gun possession.
"We have a couple of common denominators, that's the illegal possession of guns, our suspects are younger now than they use to be and arguments seem to be the number one cause of these homicides," Ciesielski said. "That's what we need people to do. Tell us where these guns are coming from tell us who are committing these crimes so we can do something about it."
The chief said he's confident that the city is not growing unsafe.
"You have to look at the success we've had so far. Crime is down. It's just homicides that are high right now, but officers are working great," he said. "This is a great city, a great place to be. It still is a safe city."
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