INDIANAPOLIS — Prosecutors charged a 17-year-old in a deadly shooting of a 15-year-old boy on the east side of Indianapolis.
Alan Peregrino, 17, has been charged with murder, along with previous charges of kidnapping while hijacking a vehicle, armed robbery, criminal recklessness, pointing a firearm at another, unlawful carrying of a handgun and dangerous possession of a firearm by a child.
Around 1:30 a.m. Oct. 21, 2023, IMPD officers responded to a report of a person shot near East 21st Street and Emerson Avenue.
Officers arrived and found a 15-year-old who had been shot. Medics arrived and pronounced the victim dead at the scene.
The Marion County Coroner's Office identified the deceased as 15-year-old Edwin Simon-Osorio and ruled his death a homicide due to a gunshot wound.
Detectives spoke with several witnesses who were at a house party in the area that night.
According to court documents, witnesses said a male, later identified as Peregrino, at the party had two guns and was swinging the guns around, pointing the weapons at people.
Court documents say one witness told detectives that at one point during the party, Simon-Osorio, approached Peregrino and told him to chill and put the guns away.
When Peregrino went outside, witnesses said they heard multiple gunshots. One witness said Peregrino fired several shots in the air as everyone ran.
The witness said approximately one minute after the first shots were fired into the air, the witness got into his car to leave with Simon-Osorio.
According to court documents, the witness said Simon-Osorio was trying to open the passenger door to his car when he heard one more shot. Simon-Osorio got into the car and said he had been shot.
Around the same time of the shooting, officers responded to a carjacking with a suspect in custody nearby on East 20th Place.
The driver and passenger of that car said Peregrino jumped in the backseat of the car after the shooting and pointed the gun at them, allegedly telling the driver and passenger that he had a "switch on it and wasn’t trying to go to jail." Court documents say the passenger got out of the car, and the driver jumped out of the car while it was in motion.
Officers took the suspect, later identified as Peregrino, into custody.
On Dec. 22, 2023, detectives obtained a potential match between a fired cartridge casing at the scene and a test-fired cartridge casing from the handgun Peregrino had when he was arrested for the carjacking.
Then, on May 1, 2024, the Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency determined all of the cartridge casings recovered from the scene were fired from the handgun Peregrino had when he was arrested the night of the incident.
The Marion County Prosecutor's Office charged Peregrino as an adult.