Five people, including pregnant woman, killed in Indianapolis mass shooting

Biba Adams
·3 min read

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police are ‘coming for’ the killers, said Mayor Joe Hogsett. ‘Coming for them as long as it takes to find them.’

A weekend mass shooting in Indianapolis is the city’s deadliest single shooting in more than a decade.

Five people — including a pregnant woman, her unborn child and a 13-year-old — were shot and killed in the early morning hours at an Adams Street residence on Sunday, and at least four of the victims appear to be of the same family.

Five people in Indianapolis — including a pregnant woman, her unborn child and a 13-year-old — were shot and killed in the Sunday’s early morning hours at an Adams Street residence. (CNN)
Five people in Indianapolis — including a pregnant woman, her unborn child and a 13-year-old — were shot and killed in the Sunday’s early morning hours at an Adams Street residence. (CNN)

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers responded to reports of gunfire and encountered a teenage male who had been shot. They were then directed to a nearby home, where they made the gruesome discovery.

Marion County coroners have identified the victims as Kezzie Childs, 42; Raymond Childs, 42; Elijah Childs, 18; Rita Childs, 13; Kiara Hawkins, 19; and Hawkins’ baby.

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At a press conference Sunday, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said, “This morning, one or more individuals perpetrated an act of evil in our city.”

“While we’re still learning more about the circumstances that led to this incident,” he maintained, “I want to be very clear about something: What happened this morning was not an act of simple gun violence. … What happened this morning was a mass murder.”

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The mayor has engaged the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana to help identify and prosecute the suspects in the case. “Federal law enforcement are coming for them, as I speak,” said Hogsett. “Coming for them today, coming for them tonight, coming for them tomorrow, and the day after that. Coming for them as long as it takes to find them.”

No motive or suspect information has been released as of press time.

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According to local reports, the mass slaying was one of nearly a half-dozen other shootings that took place in a span of five hours, which resulted in an additional seven people injured.

“For a decade now, the city of Indianapolis has engaged in a community conversation as to how we should best address the deadly confluence of guns, substance abuse and poverty that has seen our city’s homicide rate rise to historic highs,” said Hogsett.

“I myself am heartbroken,” he added. “For the lives that have been taken too soon, for the young life that’s forever been changed and for the life that never got the chance to start, for the neighborhood left to pick up the pieces in the wake of unprecedented violence.”

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