2 suspects in custody after shooting that left IMPD officer injured

INDIANAPOLIS — Two men, one of them a recent prison parolee, are in custody for investigation into their possible roles in the shooting of an IMPD officer on the city’s northeast side Friday night.

The officer, an 8-year veteran, was wounded in the abdomen and the arm and is expected to make a full recovery after surgery at Eskenazi Hospital.

Home surveillance camera video from the 3600 block of Wittfield Street, which was reviewed by FOX59 and CBS4, showed a group of IMPD patrol officers walking southbound toward 36th Street at 8:40 pm

The officers were investigating a report of shots fired.

One area resident told FOX59 and CBS4 that it sounded like military automatic weapons firing, while another described the sound as, “Boom! Tree! Tree! Tree!”

Sources tell FOX59 and CBS4 that a gunman targeted a house at that intersection, blowing out a door window, before retreating west toward Post Road.

As officers walked up to the intersection to discover dozens of shell casings, the gunman fired from down the street for no apparent reason, striking the officer.

Police did not return fire.

“Officer shot! Officer shot!” one officer reported to Dispatch. “Officers at 3-6 and Wittfield!”

“We have confirmed shot,” reported a second officer. “He has two holes in him.”

Minutes earlier, officers relayed information about the shooters.

“Reporting 30-40 shots about one minute ago, possible coming from an automatic or a machine gun,” said one officer.

“Additional car advising it’s two teenage black males, one in a light blue hoodie,” said an officer quoting a neighborhood witness, “and the other she didn’t have a clothing description, they were shooting at each other.”

Immediately, officers began dispatching a description of a vehicle leaving the scene of the shooting:

“Can anyone advise if the Kia was a sedan or an SUV?”

“I believe it was a gray SUV, newer.”

“So the latest suspect description is a Gray SUV probably a Kia?”

Utilizing Flock cameras stationed on nearby traffic control systems, IMPD officers had a description of the getaway vehicle. And according to probable cause affidavit, at 12:22 am Saturday, a detective spotted the Kia driving at a high rate of speed in the 3400 block of Mitthoefer Road.

The detective followed in a patrol car as plain clothes detectives watched the vehicle travel westbound on 30th Street and then northbound on Franklin Road. At Penway Street and Lombardy Place, the officer attempted a traffic stop, and the SUV sped off.

At speeds in excess of 110 mph, the officer questioned the Kia eastbound on 38th Street until the vehicle went south again on Mitthoefer Road and turned into the Amber Woods Apartments.

“I did see more police out walking around and searching,” one resident told FOX59 and CBS4. “I did see more police vehicles going in and out of the apartment complex and along the street.”

“I saw police on Mitthoefer in front of the neighborhood,” said another neighbor, “kind of stopping by the road, one car facing each direction and talking with the other officers on foot patrol. Seemed like they were trying to get their bearings about something or they were looking for something.”

Police found one man who had entered a resident’s townhome by the back door. The suspect then ran out the front door.

The 21-year-old man was wearing clothing described by the pursuing officer and was placed in handcuffs in the back of a patrol car.

The second man, the 20-year-old recently released from prison, was discovered a half-hour later in a neighborhood due south of Amber Woods.

“I give up,” he said, his shoes and pants covered with mud and water because the Kia had come to rest in a ditch at the apartment complex.

Detectives found a black Glock handgun with an extended magazine near the location of the first man’s arrest as well as a backpack containing a loaded AK-47 magazine.

Saturday night, detectives were prepared to search the SUV for additional evidence.

The second suspect recently completed a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for a 2022 conviction of Armed Robbery out of Jackson County, the result of a stick-up at a cell phone store in Seymour when the suspect was 17 years old .

The older suspect is being held on resisting and unlawful entry charges, while the younger man faces counts of resisting and reckless driving and is a no bond for seven days pending the outcome of a probation violation hearing for this latest incident just one month after his prison release.

His initial hearing is set for Monday morning at 8:30.

IMPD Chief Chris Bailey said that what happened Friday night is indicative of the danger his officers face on the streets every day and the courage they exhibit.

“When the shots started ringing out, officers went to the aid of this officer, but other officers ran toward that gunfire.”