INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis detectives hope to identify the people involved in a weekend gunfight downtown, where about a hundred rounds were fired indiscriminately.
The shootout happened at Meridian and Georgia streets with the area packed with people and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers.
The gunfire exchange also happened right under the eye of a Metro Police camera mounted on a pole at the intersection.
For the past 12 years, Metro Officer Loren Eltzroth has been assigned to the IMPD Downtown District. Eltzroth has worked in the bike and foot patrol unit downtown which helps keep police visible and ready to respond. During daytime bike patrols he meets a lot of people.
Eltzroth stopped working the bar district area a couple of years ago.
"At night, it's more about the nightlife, about the bar areas, entertainment with a younger crowd in the evenings," said Eltzroth, "It's definitely a different environment."
Overnight Saturday, that "different environment" rang out like never before with a hundred rounds of gunfire. Driver after driver found bullet holes in their cars which were parked in the paved lot next to the Spaghetti Factory on Meridian Street. Bullets also went through windows in buildings across Meridian Street, with police patrolling the same area.
"The bar area, there is going to be a heavy police presence, those who have come downtown before have seen that," said Eltzroth.
People like bar patron Mike Stokes have a good time downtown. He told 13News that he and his friends left the bar district area minutes before the gunfire.
"People don't like hearing those gunshots. When they hear gunshots everybody is going to get low, besides God, the police, everybody," Stokes said.
Downtown detectives are looking at video from security cameras. They also hope for answers from the shell casings entered into a national database that will tell them if the same weapons have been used elsewhere.
Although he's grateful there are no reported injuries from the shootout, Stokes says it still ruined this past weekend's nightlife.
"I am just thankful that I wasn't in the mix," Stokes said. "But it's sad you just can't have a good time."
IMPD has an agreement with several downtown businesses about sharing surveillance video and in some cases, it gives them immediate access to footage. There is a chance several downtown cameras recorded the people involved in the shootout moments before and moments after the incident.
Metro Police questioned a man after dispatchers alerted officers about a man who walked into Community East Hospital sometime after the downtown shootout. The man insisted that he did not know where his shooting injury occurred or who did it. Still, a trained Evidence Technician Officer with IMPD took photos of the injured man's vehicle that he drove to the hospital.
Anyone with information on the downtown shootout can secretly call crime stoppers at 317-262-TIPS. If your anonymous tip leads to an arrest, you will receive up to $1,000.00 in reward money. All calls to the tip line are 100% confidential.