INDIANAPOLIS — Already this year, IMPD has recorded six youth gun homicides with the killing of a 16-year-old boy by his buddy last week after investigators said a group of teenagers was showing off a pistol while a girlfriend was shooting cell phone videos and the weapon fired.
Last year at this time, IMPD reported 15 children died of gun homicides.
From the first part of 2023 to the first part of this year, the Marion County Prosecutor had filed more than 400 juvenile gun cases, more than one case per day, a record of filings for a 12-month stretch.
In late June, Indianapolis officials and healthcare professionals applauded when U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recognized what local pediatric surgeons have been witnessing in their emergency departments for the last couple of years.
“The U.S. Surgeon General declared gun violence a public health crisis, highlighting how firearm violence is now the leading cause of death among children and adolescents,” said Dr. Michele Saysanaz, V.P.-chief medical officer at IU Health Methodist and University hospitals.
Consider in the last month police throughout Marion County have arrested several juveniles on armed robbery charges, two children and an adult for the attempted burglary of a Beech Grove gun store, investigated a child who shot his mother’s boyfriend because he feared the man was about to engage in domestic violence, responded to a fatal crash involving a 17-year-old boy who was in a car fleeing police after officers spotted youths placing several guns in the vehicle and an east side man was arrested for allowing three children, ages 10 to 14, to fire his gun at their apartment complex, the same community where teen rappers have posted videos this year flashing guns and claiming to have murdered their rivals, whether they actually did or not.
”That pride that feeling of, ‘I have to be strong because systematically I’ve been weak my whole life from the system,’” said King Akpan, a 17-year-old youth leader from Tru Colors Ambassadors, “’The government, from other people, my peers, their biases, their racism, has made me feel weak, so, now I’m gonna feel strong, exert my will over someone else and hurt them and self-incrimination, I’m gonna talk about because nothing can touch me.’”
Tru Colors Ambassadors recently held a Saturday forum as teenagers engaged with leaders of Indianapolis public health and education, police and the mayor’s office to examine the challenges facing young people in the city.
”I feel like a lot of social media, one, it glorifies violence, especially as it relates to guns, and, two, it makes it so easy. A lot of conflicts are made instantaneous through the use of Instagram, social media messages, stuff like that, so, something goes from online to in person and having actual physical violence really quickly,” said Akpan. ”Youth violence is still a problem with or without phones but it just makes it easier.”
”These rap videos these days influence sex and violence and drugs, that’s one type of influence that leads from a young age up to older also,” said 17-year-old Sean River. ”Street influence is something you can actually see. From a kid that’s never been around a group of people and you see him trying to get closer and closer to it, you can pull that kid actually faster than they can tr y to go toward that group.Go outside, go to your phone, search up after school centers, search up centers, these people have connections to better and bigger things in life.”
Mayor Joe Hogsett last week joined with Indy Peace, IU Health-Methodist Hospital and the Indy Public Safety Foundation to announce the state’s first Hospital-Linked Violence Intervention Program.
”By linking the city’s resources, Indy Peace in particular, directly to IU Health-Methodist Hospital, we are improving our ability to support residents who have been impacted by gun violence,” said Hogsett. ”We are reaching more people than ever. We are connecting them with the resources they need to lead peaceful and fulfilling lives.”
The IU Health HVIP will interact with violence victims at their bedsides.
”We’re creating a multi-disciplinary team that is comprised of nurses, doctors, clinicians, as well as life coaches, program managers and folks from the community,” said Indy Public Safety Foundation President & CEO Dane Nutty. ”When that individual’s discharged, it’s often times challenging to continue providing support, and that’s where our team by being able to start bedside, being able to start inside the hospital walls is able to create that relationship and really develop that trust and we can continue that relationship for 12-18 months and beyond.”
While the IU Health HVIP partners with city agencies, its approach is similar to that of the Prescription for Hope program at Eskenazi Hospital which also counsels violence victims who may seek support in dealing with their trauma or explore an alternative lifestyle.
The IU Health HVIP received a quarter-million dollar Elevation Grant from the city to launch its program last spring which has already enrolled six patients in the Indy Peace Fellowship which provides counseling and ongoing support.
”From 2021 through 2023 we had achieved a 32% reduction in criminal homicides,” said Hogsett, highlighting the success of his administration’s $150 million investment in community violence reduction programs at a time of falling violent crime rates across the country. “And in the last two years, we outpaced the rate of the national decline.”
