INDIANAPOLIS — An 18-year-old woman has died after being shot on the northeast side of Indianapolis Sunday night.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to the 7900 block of Scarborough Boulevard on reports of a person shot at 6:45 p.m.
There they found a woman in the street suffering from a gunshot injury. She died at the scene.
The Marion County coroner's office identified the woman as Ariel Marie Calhoun, 18.
According to IMPD, Calhoun was found with shell casings around her body.
Her death marks a disturbing trend in Indianapolis that community leaders want to see an end to.
IMPD numbers show 35 people 18 and younger have been killed in 2023. Most of those by gun violence.
"It's like nobody has remorse or respect or care for anybody. Nobody's children, nobody's family and loved ones. It's just mind blowing and I don't understand it," Ariel's mother Crystal Conner said.
Conner says she heard gunshots ring out Sunday evening and immediately had a sick feeling.
"I was sitting in the bed and i heard some gunshots and I hopped up and ran to her room and her door was open," Conner said. "I felt something in my spirit like somethings wrong because she didn't answer my phone calls."
Conner said an open door meant Ariel would be back home soon. But once she saw flashing lights her gut feeling became a reality.
Ariel was found shot and killed just a block away from home.
"I never thought I would be getting ready to cremate my daughter," Conner said. "They shot her before she could come on this next block to get home to me."
Family of Ariel, like dozens of other families across the city, are left with trying to understand why their loved one was shot.
"Why her? Why anybody for that matter?" Qianna Barnes, Ariel's family said.
Barnes said she can't understand why anyone would want to take Ariel's life.
"Life is so precious and there is really no one, not one person who has the right to take it," Barnes said.
Joe Garrison helped the North Shadeland Alliance that works to fight things like violence in the community.
"We just have to learn to resolve conflict in healthier ways. Right now we are seeing a lot of people: youth, adults, across the board resolving conflict in violent ways," Joe Garrison said. "Unfortunately it knows no bounds. It can happen in the safest neighborhoods, it can happen in the neighborhoods we think are more dangerous. It can happen in your own home."
Family tells WRTV that Ariel graduated high school at 16 and was pursuing a career in the automotive industry, with a love for working on cars.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 317-262-8477 (TIPS) or the IMPD Homicide Office at 317-327-3811.
