Indianapolis—
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police added more officers downtown Saturday night and placed patrolmen on city buses running from the east and west sides to downtown in the wake of a Saturday morning killing in the bar district.Christopher Lindsey, 19, was killed and Prince Bibbs, 22, was wounded after shots were fired at a bar in the 200 block of South Meridian Street.
IMPD has adopted a more high-profile presence downtown. Officers are patrolling buses that bring teenagers to the city's core. Metro vice officers and state excise police were also present in the downtown bar district Saturday night. This increased presence comes less than a month after two young people were wounded on a Saturday night in January in gunfire near Circle Centre.
This weekend's killing marked at least the fourth time since last summer that gunfire has erupted downtown. The shootings have captured the attention of organizers of a violent crime summit set for Tuesday.
"If they don't address this problem, this violence is going to affect all of our communities. The business community needs to step up to the plate, too, and we need to address this as a community, particularly with the Super Bowl coming which is their pride and joy in this city," said Rev. Charles Harrison of the Ten Point Coalition. The Coalition is sponsoring Tuesday's crime summit. "No one wants to come to a violent community, and we need to address this problem now because even the Super Bowl won't be safe."
After the July shootings downtown which left ten people wounded on the last night of the Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration, city officials downplayed the impact to the city's reputation or the concerns of the NFL in advanced of Super Bowl XLVI which is set for February, 2011, at Lucas Oil Stadium.
"Well, they were wrong," said Rev. Harrison. "We tried to tell them. They were wrong. These kids are not afraid to go downtown and shoot up downtown just like they do in the neighborhoods."
Tuesday's violent crime summit, which the Ten Point Coalition announced last month with Mayor Greg Ballard, Police Chief Paul Ciesielski and Public Safety Director Frank Straub by its side, will be held at 10 a.m. at the headquarters of the Indianapolis Urban League. Police, church, federal and local representatives as well as participants from the governor's office are expected to attend
"We need to rise up from our community and demand, from our politicians, that they do something about this gun violence and quit hiding behind their office and not addressing this problem," said Rev. Harrison. "I hope that they will not be afraid of the National Rifle Association and other groups who may scream loudly because we are focusing on this gun issue. We need leadership."
