Two juveniles were left in critical condition last night after a shooting inside the Emerleigh housing addition on Indianapolis’s near East Side, sending detectives combing the scene for evidence while investigators work to piece together what happened. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers responded just before 7 p.m. to a report of a person shot in the 1200 block of Wallace Avenue, a residential stretch just northwest of East 10th Street and Emerson Avenue.
Officers arriving at the scene found two people suffering from gunshot wounds and rushed them to area hospitals, according to WTHR. Indianapolis police reported that both victims were juveniles in critical condition, per WISH-TV, though no further details about their identities or ages have been released. Police said there is no immediate threat to the public, even as detectives continued investigating the shooting and gathering evidence from the scene.
A Historic Neighborhood Turned Crime Scene
The Emerleigh housing addition where the shooting happened is a historic residential subdivision platted in the 1910s and 1920s, sitting in the 46201 ZIP code near the Little Flower neighborhood and made up largely of single-family bungalows and duplexes, according to Zillow property records. It’s a quiet, established pocket of Center Township just west of Emerson Avenue — not the kind of setting typically associated with gun violence, which makes Tuesday’s shooting all the more jarring for residents there.
No additional information about the two juveniles was available as of Tuesday night, and police have not named any suspects or described a motive. Anyone with information has been asked to call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477, which offers anonymous tipsters cash rewards of up to $1,000 for information leading to a felony arrest, according to WTHR. Tipsters are assigned unique code numbers to protect their identities, and payouts are distributed through password-secured transactions at local bank desks.
Part of a Troubling Pattern on the East Side
Tuesday’s shooting comes just two days after Hoodline reported on a fatal shooting on LaSalle Street, underscoring a persistent problem in IMPD’s East District. That district spans 50 square miles and serves roughly 145,000 residents, yet historically accounts for about 38% of all homicides citywide, as Hoodline has previously reported — a statistic that helps explain why specialized violence reduction resources keep flowing to Indy’s near East Side…