INDIANAPOLIS — An abandoned property near 29th Street and Capitol Avenue is now boarded up following concerns from the community about violent crime and squatters.
IMPD says it will now enforce criminal trespassing at the site.
“It was chaos. Deaths, prostitution, drugs, just all messed up,” a resident of the house said. “There was no running water or nothing here, so it’s considered an abandoned house, but it was my home.”
The woman said the father of her 16-year-old son, Charles Arnold Jr., was shot and killed at the apartment complex.
"It hurt a lot of people because he was loved," she said.
The building has been the site of at least three shootings since July.
"I'm feeling distressed. I'm going crazy. I've been having panic attacks," Jessica Hughes said.
Hughes used to live there. She said the actions of others got her kicked out.
"They put us out in four days. They should have gave us 30 days because I was paying rent here," she said.
IMPD Commander Matthew Thomas says there have been situations in the city where people are taken advantage of and led to believe things that aren’t true.
"In this case, if people were believing they were paying rent, it wasn't going to the property owner, and we have offered to make fraud reports in those circumstances,” Commander Thomas said.
Commander Thomas says no one should have been living in the building. Now, the department has stepped in and closed it down.
"There were multiple visits to the location to first assess the problems and see what potential solutions were,” he said. “We established a timeline in conjunction with the property owner, came back, and then followed up on what we had explained to begin with.”
The move came after complaints and violence. A neighbor told WRTV that some people had begun dumping feces from the window into his trash can.
Some people said they weren't able to get their furniture out of the units and that they needed resources. If that pertains to you, contact IMPD's North District.
"We need to be compassionate with anyone who's living in a situation, so we bring in additional resources to help with that and provide alternate locations, which we hope are to much higher standards than they were experiencing," Commander Thomas said.
IMPD encourages neighbors to call the police if they see anyone on the property.
