INDIANAPOLIS — A 15-year-old boy was found shot to death inside a car early Saturday morning on the east side of Indianapolis.
However, police say the shooting happened in the 5400 block of E. 20th Street. Numerous neighbors there say the teen was shot during a massive Halloween party with more than a hundred people in attendance.
The 15-year-old was identified Monday as Edwin Simon-Osorio.
After being shot at the party, Simon-Osorio somehow ended up inside a vehicle half a mile away at the Shell gas station at 21st Street and Emerson.
“To hear of a 15-year-old, that is truly heartbreaking,” said Rev. Malachi Walker with Young Men Inc.
Several neighbors reported hearing fighting the morning of the shooting but IMPD said it is still investigating what prompted the gunfire.
Simon-Osorio is the 15th juvenile to be shot and killed in Indianapolis so far this year. Rev. Walker works with at-risk youth through his ministry and said that’s a troubling trend.
“There are too many guns out on the street and they’re getting in the hands of those who shouldn’t have guns,” Rev. Walker said. “Youth get involved in some illegal activity or hang around the wrong crowds, and things like that you are asking for trouble.”
Residents in the area were left wondering why so many teenagers were partying and fighting in the streets so early in the morning. They and Walker said preventing a tragedy like this one begins at home and with parents.
“We don’t want to see you get hurt, we don’t wanna see you make bad decisions and then end up dead on the street,” Walker said.
So far, no arrests have been announced in this case. Anybody with information is asked to call IMPD’s homicide office at 317-327-3475 or CrimeStoppers at 317-262-8477.
