This article was co-reported by Chalkbeat Indiana and Axios Indianapolis as part of a reporting partnership on youth gun violence in Indianapolis.
As 17-year-old Oswin Ortiz Jr. lay outside his home in 2019, his father approached him and asked who had shot him.
- “All he could say was ‘Snapchat’ and pointed to his phone,” police wrote in charging documents for Joshua Grow, who eventually pleaded guilty in connection with Ortiz Jr.’s shooting and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
- After Ortiz Jr. died, police officers went through his Snapchat account, where they found videos he took showing the THC he was trying to sell and messages setting up a sale with Grow, who was 18 at the time.
Why it matters: Deaths like Ortiz Jr.’s are far from rare. Since 2018, over one-third of the gun homicides involving Indianapolis youth for which prosecutors have brought charges have involved social media use, according to Marion County court documents.
Behind the scenes: Over several months, reporters from Axios Indianapolis and Chalkbeat Indiana reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents and interviewed key stakeholders to better understand what is driving youth gun violence in the city…