Seeking explanations for 8 homicides in 15 hours

A bloody 15-hour stretch that left eight people slain in Indianapolis prompted police and civic leaders to speculate Friday about a yearlong homicide trend that shows no sign of abating.

They offered many theories, but few concrete solutions.

The causes they cited ranged from the violence inherent in a life of crime, to a police officer shortage, to a growing disregard for human life.

Even Mayor Greg Ballard joined in the speculation.

"While no one deserves to be a victim, initial reports indicate these were not random acts of violence," Ballard said in a statement Friday, after four people were found slain in a Southeastside ranch-style home. "The victims knew their assailants."

That sentiment reinforced a mantra delivered for the past year by Police Chief Rick Hite and Public Safety Director Troy Riggs — that roughly 75 percent of homicide victims have criminal records and many of them were killed while doing something illegal.

Their message: Crime kills.

"The victims and suspects often have something in common — criminal histories," Hite said again at a news conference Friday. "Today is no different."

And the beginning of this year has been no different than last year, which recorded 141 homicides, the most since 2006. In the first seven weeks of 2014, 26 people have been slain in Indianapolis. Last year, 20 people had been killed at this point.

City's 15 hours of carnage

9:30 a.m. Thursday: Thursday's carnage began at 9:30 a.m., when Police discovered 50-year-old Leroy Barker, Indianapolis, dead in the 2100 block of North Kenyon Street on the Eastside. His death was ruled a homicide.

4:50 p.m. Thursday: About seven hours later, 16-year-old Quinton Nance, 16, Indianapolis, was shot dead in the 600 block of East 23rd Street, just west of College Avenue. Deputy Chief of Investigations Bill Lorah said Nance and his brother had been in a fight with a group of boys beforehand. Members of that group followed Nance and shot him.

8 p.m. Thursday: Two men and two women were found slain in a home in the 3400 block of South Parker Avenue, near South Keystone Avenue and I-65. Hayley Navarra, 21; Kristy Mae Sanchez, 22; Jacob Rodemich, 43; and Walter Burnell, 47, all of Indianapolis, were found with fatal gunshot wounds. Neighbors said the area was rife with drug dealers. Hite said "criminal activity" was going on in the home, but would not say whether it involved narcotics.

12:30 a.m. Friday: Early Friday, Police found two men — Michael Whitfield, 27, and Lorenzo Clark Jr., 22, both of Indianapolis — fatally shot inside a home in the 2400 block of Stuart Street.

None of the four incidents were related, and police have made no arrests in any of the cases.

Officer shortage?

The president of the Indianapolis police union said the frequency of homicides can be traced to an insufficient number of IMPD officers on the streets.

"The crime rate could be reduced by increased manpower," said Bill Owensby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 86. "Homicides themselves can be difficult to predict, but if you're getting bad guys and guns off the streets … when they commit burglaries and robberies and aggravated assaults and vehicle thefts, you're going to get some of them off the streets before they commit homicides."

The City-County Council has authorized 1,740 officers for IMPD, Owensby said, and the current roster contains a few more than 1,500. The department had more than 1,700 officers about five years ago, he said.

"If we had 250 more officers on the street," Owensby said, "we could do wonderful things for crime reduction. The way things are now, if we don't do something soon, we will have to cut services."

An IMPD recruit class of 50 will graduate this year and another class of 50 will be hired next year. But an internal Public Safety Department review found that IMPD would need nearly 700 more officers to reach parity with other similar-sized cities.

Thomas Stucky, an associate professor of criminology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said he isn't sure adding cops would reduce homicides, because there are so many variables for the causes of murder. He said some cities have fewer officers per capita than Indianapolis and have a lower murder rate. Others have more cops and a higher murder rate.

"I don't know of any research that supports direct links between the two," Stucky said. "After all, the police are not gone, altogether. They're still there. Even if you've got 'X' number of officers and put them in somewhere, it is hard to measure the prevention of something."

"The important thing is what you do with the officers you have on the ground," Stucky said, "and I think IMPD has done a number of cutting-edge things."

The department has adjusted its crime-fighting strategies in recent years to compensate for the officer shortage, mostly by using technology.

IMPD has mapped out the city's most violent neighborhoods to the square half-mile. It has flooded areas with cops and city social services resources and community policing officers. They've identified residents with violent histories and paid them visits to offer job assistance or or issue them warnings to stay out of trouble. Police officers also have made traffic stops to seize illegal guns, and undercover officers have snagged guns and drugs in sting operations.

An innovative domestic-violence program, called Baker One, has been credited with halting domestic-violence situations before they turn deadly.

Yet the killing goes on.

The eight Indianapolis homicides in one day are the most since seven extended family members were slain in a house on Hamilton Avenue in 2006 and the most in recent memory.

'All hands on deck'

A community activist with the Indianapolis-based crime-reduction organization, the Ten Point Coalition, blamed an "increasingly violent culture" for the rising number of homicides.

"It's complex because it goes beyond that segment that we would like to say are criminals or who are out to do bad or have bad intentions," the Rev. Charles Ellis said. "We certainly have a segment like that, but we also have people who in many regards are everyday people, but they have chosen to solve situations by shooting one another. Every time it happens, it cripples the spirit of our community. It's sad that we have degenerated to this level."

Solutions are not easy, Ellis acknowledged. But he believes church groups and others are making a difference by spending time in neighborhoods, counseling youths and encouraging families.

"We need all hands on deck," he said. "We cannot be weary in what we're doing to try to improve our community. Once you make the decision to take someone's life, you can't give it back and make that right."

Focusing on guns

Joe Zelenka, of the Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis, has been holding vigils for homicide victims for more than a decade and thinks the availability of guns for crooks is the problem.

"We can put 10,000 cops on the street and it's not going to matter if you have a certain number of people with no education and no sense of community walking around with guns, causing chaos," he said.

Reporter Kristine Guerra contributed to this story.Call reporter John Tuohy at (317) 444-6418. Follow him on Twitter: @john_tuohy.