INDIANAPOLIS (NewsNation Now) — Indianapolis police arrested a 17-year-old male Monday accused of killing six people in his parents’ home over the weekend.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that the name of the suspect was “not being released at this time since the suspect is a juvenile.” No one else was believed to be involved, police said.
According to IMPD, the shooting occurred in the 3500 block of Adams Street before 4 a.m. on Sunday. according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Originally, police were called out to the nearby 3300 block of E. 36th Street around 3:45 a.m., where police discovered the suspect’s younger brother suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to a children’s hospital; then led investigators to a house in the 3500 block of North Adams Street, on the city’s east side, where the bodies of the other victims were found.
The deceased were identified as the parents of the home, Kezzie and Raymond Childs, both 42, their 18-year-old son, Elijah, and 13-year-old daughter, Rita, and 19-year-old Kiara Hawkins, who died along with her near-full term unborn son.
IMPD spokeswoman Aliya Wishner said the 17-year-old suspect in custody is not the same juvenile male who was found wounded Sunday.
The 17-year-old is in custody, while the younger brother is still hospitalized and recovering from his wounds. It’s that younger brother who first alerted police to the horrific scene they would discover shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday.
One account reported the boy said, “They killed my family,” while the initial IMPD report indicated upon his arrival at an emergency room, the boy told officers that everyone in his home had been shot, and his older brother was the gunman.
When officers returned to the family home on North Adams, they discovered several bodies inside and immediately called for the transportation of Hawkins to the hospital in a futile attempt to save her life and that of her unborn child.
When detectives interviewed the boy at the hospital, he reportedly told police that his older brother had been reprimanded by his father for leaving the home without permission, and the son was told the issue would be resolved later, but that the teen disagreed.
It was then, the boy said, that while he was downstairs in the home with his parents, they heard gunfire upstairs and his sister yelling, “He shot them,” followed by the sound of more gunshots.
The boy said then his brother, “came down the stairs with a Draco gun, a handgun that shoots rifle rounds, and started shooting.”
The boy said he ran out the side door of the home, his brother pursuing him and firing away, which would account for the four gunshots neighbors told NewsNation affiliate WXIN they heard.
“Because we had found that young man who has suffered some significant gunshot wounds, and he pointed us in the direction of that Adams Street address, which we had no idea what we would find when we walked in the door there when the officers walked in the door there,” said IMPD Assistant Chief Chris Bailey. “I can’t imagine the horrific nature of what they had to see yesterday.”
Throughout the day Sunday, relatives and friends gathered on Adams Street, seeking answers and access to the house and at one point asking WXIN to get the word out that a 15-year-old relative was unaccounted for. That teen was in the hospital.
Also missing was his older brother. Several hours later, detectives tracked the youth to Plainfield, where he was arrested.
IMPD would not disclose if he was taken into custody with any evidence that would link him to the murders, nor if the youth made any statement to investigators.
“Our detectives and our violent crime unit follow the leads. They follow information that they gather as part of their investigation through a whole host of investigative techniques and methods,” Bailey said. “We did receive information from the community, from neighbors, from people that were concerned about what happened.”
One neighbor told WXIN that she had provided officers with specific information that would permit them to track the absent teen.
There have been 21 homicides in Indianapolis thus far this year, putting the city’s 2021 murder tally well ahead of last year’s record pace.
“We have a serious problem in our community with people who don’t know how to deal with their conflict except for with a gun or a blade,” Bailey said.
For the time being, the youth is currently being housed in the Marion County Juvenile Detention facility, though investigators have until Thursday to file charges.
Both Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Randall Taylor referred to the incident as a “mass murder.”
“Yesterday, we promised swift justice for this heinous act. Today, we delivered on that promise,” said Taylor. “While removing the alleged perpetrator of yesterday’s mass murder from our neighborhoods does not bring back the lives senselessly lost, hopefully, it will bring us one step closer to healing as a community. I am grateful to all of the IMPD officers and criminal justice partners who have worked tirelessly for the last 30 plus hours to bring justice for these victims, their friends and families, and our entire community. I ask community members to join me in praying for the continued recovery of the young man whose life has been forever changed.”
The Associated Press, writer Rick Callahan, contributed to this report. NewsNation affiliate WTTV/WXIN contributed to this report.