INDIANAPOLIS—A shooting inside a home on Indy’s near northeast side leaves one man dead.
Just after 1:30 in the morning, IMPD officers were called to a home on Stuart Street and found Ervin Crabtree Sr. shot inside.
“This is one of the hot spot areas for this district so officers were pretty close and arrived within minutes,” said IMPD Captain Kimberly Young.
Sadly, despite the quick response time, the 41-year-old victim died in the hospital.
Police say a child was also inside the home at the time of the killing but was not hurt.
Police are still investigating what led to the deadly shooting.
At the same time, community leaders are doing their best to reverse the narrative for the neighborhood by investing millions of dollars in revitalization efforts.
“The challenges are real. It hurts us every day to hear about tragedies and the struggles we get into,” said Barato Britt, president of the Edna Martin Christian Center.
In fact, a crime mapping tool highlighting all of this year’s homicides, shows the overnight killing on Stuart is the fifth homicide this year in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood.
Still, Britt spent his Friday helping host the third annual Juneteenth peace walk and rally in the neighborhood.
“I just want people to know Martindale-Brightwood is a community on the rise despite some of the challenges we still see,” said Britt.
To help transform the area by assisting with home repairs and stable home ownership, last year Martindale-Brightwood was selected to be a Lift Indy neighborhood… with 3.5 million dollars being invested over three years.
Lift Indy is a comprehensive community development program that promotes equitable neighborhood revitalization through affordable housing, economic development, and placemaking.
Despite those efforts, preventing shootings like the one on Stuart and overcoming decades of struggles, won’t happen overnight.
“Historically Martindale-Brightwood has suffered from disinvestment,” said Britt. “We’re trying to address these issues comprehensively. We all still see positive light at the end of the tunnel and positive transformation for this neighborhood.”
No arrests have been made following the homicide on Stuart.
Anyone with information about the incident should contact Detective Andrew McKalips, at the IMPD Homicide Office at 317.327.3475 or e-mail him at [email protected].
