INDIANAPOLIS --- City leaders say they are fed up with the violence in Broad Ripple and are looking for solutions after the recent fatal shooting over the weekend.
4 people were shot leaving 3 dead in Broad Ripple on Sunday morning.
“Now we left with tears in our eyes – memories off him – but we don’t have him,” Shantelle Cole said. Cole is talking about her cousin Tywain Henning. The 24-year-old was one of three people that were shot and killed in Broad Ripple.
“I had to pick up his mom up off the ground – that hurt” Cole said. Cole described Henning as having a smile that could light up a room. She says he came from a big family,one that truly misses their loved one. Cole added that Henning would give someone the shirt off his back if they needed it.
“You can hurt but just go home, people still need to live their lives,” Cole went onto say.
Cole says Henning was out with his friends and family over the weekend in Broad Ripple when the gun fire rang out. “His life means something – he has a mom – he has a brother, a twin brother,” Cole told WRTV.
Over the weekend, the Broad Ripple Village Association said they sent a letter to Mayor Joe Hogsett asking to make the area a gun free zone on Friday and Saturday nights.
“At this point its honestly too late,” Jordan Dillon, the Executive Director for Broad Ripple Village Association said.
The City of Indianapolis unveiled its Gun Free Zone at the WonderRoad Music Festival in Garfield Park. This is one part of the city's plan to address gun violence.
RELATED | “Gun Free Zone” policy to be used at WonderRoad Music Festival this weekend (wrtv.com)
The gun-free zone aspect of this plan includes a metal detector system set up at entrances of major events to scan for weapons. “We don’t have a single entrance – we are not a ticketed event – we have a much different crowd than was at the music festival,” Dillion said.
While IMPD says the motive into this weekend’s shooting remains under investigation, the department says it has more officers patrolling Broad Ripple on Friday and Saturday nights than anywhere else in the city.
For Cole, she just wants people to put the guns down.
“Who in the right mind would pull out a gun in a group full of people - you don't know who you are going to touch - as soon as you pull out a gun and shoot it - you are taking your life and somebody else’s life,” Cole concluded.
