INDIANAPOLIS — Genaro Dominguez Hipolito and his large family were packing up after a joyous New Year's Eve fiesta at a south-side restaurant when a pickup truck tore through the parking lot, squealing tires and splashing people with water from puddles.
Rain was falling in the darkened lot, and the family told WRTV that the driver swerved close to people and parked vehicles. The pickup stopped; Dominguez Hipolito, 35, approached.
The men exchanged words in Spanish. Dominguez Hipolito was calm, his niece Andrea Rivera said. The driver, she said, flailed his arms and cussed.
Rivera was near her uncle but turned away to hand a bag to her cousin. She didn't see the knife. She didn't see the thrust that sent her uncle staggering.
"My uncle just releases himself like nothing and I hold him by his stomach," Rivera said. "I push him back and he just, like, didn't say anything. Just moves back."
Rivera took her hands away. They were sticky. She moved into the light.
It was blood.
“It happened so fast,” Rivera said. "He falls on the ground and all I hear is my mom screaming ‘Genaro!’"
Three hours into the New Year, this Indianapolis family suffered a terrible tragedy as our city saw its first homicide of 2022.
Dominguez Hipolito had been dividing his time living in Indianapolis and his home country of Mexico since he was 14 years old. He worked here as a painter. He was the sole provider for his wife Aurelia Hipolito Antonio, daughters Liliana and Yoana and son Eribaldo Dominguez. Loved ones have started a GoFundMe page to help his family.
He was a happy and hard-working man, loved ones said. He was quick to clean dishes, make coffee or do anything else he could to help his family.
“He was the perfect gentleman," his sister Nicole Dominguez said speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. "He supported financially his mother, who’s widowed, his wife of 12 years and 3 kids. He'd travel back and forth to Mexico and visit his family between jobs."
Few Details Released About Dominguez Hipolito's Stabbing
In a news release, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said Dominguez Hipolito was stabbed to death outside Pollo Los Reyes restaurant in the 2800 block of Madison Avenue about 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 1.
Officers arrived at the scene and found an “ongoing disturbance,” IMPD Lt. Shane Foley said in a news release.
The release stated, “there is no ongoing threat to the public.”
Rivera said Dominguez Hipolito’s family members took the man's truck keys and held him at the scene until police arrived.
The man’s shirt was covered in her uncle's blood, Rivera said. The knife was there too, still on the ground in the parking lot.
Police questioned the suspect and a man in the truck with him, according to people WRTV interviewed. They also questioned members of Dominguez Hipolito's family.
No arrests have been made.
Alex Dominguez, Genaro’s brother, said he held his brother as Genaro took his last breaths. When police arrived, Alex refused to let go until officers threatened him with a Taser.
Alex Dominguez said he wants someone to explain why the man who stabbed his brother wasn't arrested that night. Why, he asked, is that man still free?
“I want justice for my brother who was a humble man," Alex Dominguez said through an interpreter. "He never looked for problems with anyone.
“We hope, we hope that with God’s help there will be justice.”
IMPD has released few details about what happened in that parking lot on Jan. 1. They have not yet released the suspect's name.
Lt. Shane Foley, a spokesman for IMPD, said police made no arrest the night of the stabbing because they spoke with prosecutors and decided "further investigation was needed."
"The investigation is ongoing," Foley told WRTV via email, "but the evidence from this case has preliminarily been submitted to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office for charging consideration."
Michael Leffler, a spokesman for Prosecutor Ryan Mears, said the case remains under investigation. Leffler declined to answer questions about the investigation but told WRTV he would send an update "as soon as more information is available."
Dominguez Hipolito’s family said police had the evidence from the moment the first officers arrived on the scene. Officers have the suspect, the knife and the witnesses.
The family is frustrated and angry.
“We want justice, we want justice and we need an explanation as to why police took the word of killer over the people on the scene," Alex Dominguez said. "The guy came here, caused trouble and killed someone."
Eva Rivera, Alex Dominguez's wife and Dominguez Hipolito's sister-in-law, said the family is crying for justice.
“This is wrong. We trust in law enforcement and this wasn’t correct or just," Eva Rivera said, through the interpreter. "Please, please. Let’s show us there are laws here. Why can’t they enforce them now? Where is the law?"
More: Man fatally stabbed on south side in 1st homicide of 2022 in Indianapolis
Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on Twitter: @vicryc.
