MATTHEW TULLY

Tully: A homicide detective’s fight to save his city

Matthew Tully

Just before I began to write this column I read the latest story about the young men who have been charged in the murder of Amanda Blackburn. The story is heartbreaking, filled with sickening details that are hard to comprehend, and it made even more clear to me why people like the subject of today’s column are so critical.

That subject’s name is Harry C. Dunn III, and he is an Indianapolis homicide detective. Just like his dad was. And just like his grandfather was. It’s a job in which, “I see the worst of the worst,” he said. “And I interview the worst of the worst.”

But I’m not writing about Dunn because of the work he does in the IMPD’s robbery and homicide division, as important as that work is. What led me to meet with him at a Far Eastside church one recent afternoon is the work he is doing away from the job of solving crimes. Work aimed at addressing the problems that emerge long before they result in horrifying headlines. Work intended to address the deep core issues plaguing so many neighborhoods near that Far Eastside church.

“I can’t keep standing over individuals in the street complaining about what I’m seeing without doing more about it,” he said. “Mass incarceration isn’t the path that is going to get us there. We have to be about prevention. We have to focus on trying to find ways to keep that person from making the mistakes that lead them to the point where I see them.”

As we talked, Dunn walked me through the Eastside Church, Messiah Missionary Baptist. He has worked out a deal to take over  about half of the sprawling building, filling it with his Him By Her Foundation, a nonprofit he has spent years planning and fundraising for, and which he hopes to open early next year.

“What are we doing to occupy the young minds in our city?” he asked. “We have to find ways to educate them and give them the skill sets for the jobs of tomorrow. You will find that just keeping them busy is a huge piece of this.”

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Him By Her stretches over three floors in the church. One is filled with Enterprise City, made to look like a city filled with stores, businesses and government offices. It’s part of a program that teaches students business skills and entrepreneurship. Another floor will host vocational training programs for adults, aimed heavily at men and women with felony records and offering certifications in trades such as plumbing, barbering and landscaping.

More rooms will offer mentoring and resume assistance; marriage counseling and anger management programs; child care and parenting help; and health screenings and financial literacy programs.

Dunn is big and imposing — a gun was strapped to his hip as we talked — but he also is soft-spoken and prayerful. And it was in one of those prayers that he and his wife settled on the name of the foundation. A father of two boys, he said the statistics about young black males motivate him, but he emphasized that the problems in the city, and the dangers facing its young people, cut across racial and gender lines. (Him By Her, he said, stands for “Helping Improve Mankind By Healing Every Race.”)

Much of it boils down to a lack of role models and home lives filled with dysfunction, he said, and a lack of understanding about life’s possibilities and the impact of decisions.

“You have young men raising other young men, teaching them how to be men, and none of them have ever been men,” Dunn said. “It’s not that they don’t have mentors. They have poor mentors. And then you put a gun in their hand.”

He’s hoping to change that.

Him By Her received an early boost from Colts owner Jim Irsay, whose $100,000 check has helped bring the foundation close to reality. The Estridge family foundation also has helped with financial support, and Dunn has worked with the probation department to make sure the nonprofit would have a stream of clients to serve from day one. He is working with the health department, IMPD and schools, hoping to fill his program with the type of wraparound services the community needs.

“You can’t help a young man or a young woman without helping their brother or sister, and their mom and dad,” he said. That holistic approach, he insisted, is how you attack the core issues plaguing the city.

But he’s not there yet. He needs to raise more money to build the foundation he envisions; he knows that opening the doors on shaky financial footing would be a bad decision. So if you’re interested in helping or learning more, please go to himbyherfoundation.com.

As we ended our conversation, I asked Dunn how he has found the time to build a foundation in addition to his job on the police department and his role as a father. He doesn’t sleep much, he said with a smile. And, he added, he doesn’t really have a choice.

“You see these young males on the street, and you arrest them, and you learn that the commonality in all of them is that they are poverty stricken and they lack an education,” he said. “Once you understand all of that, how do you not get involved?”

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You can reach me at matthew.tully@gmail.com or on Twitter: @matthewltully.