INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - At 34th Street and Franklin Road on the far east side Monday night, a gathering in grief.
“My son was a very respectful young man. He didn’t deserve this. All he wanted to do was go play basketball,” says Nakita White, mother of homicide victim Leandre Lane.
A couple hundred mourners packed the corner where the teen was gunned down on a bloody weekend city-wide.
Friends called 17-year-old Leandre Lane "Dre."
"We’re asking whoever killed our loved one, this mother is grieving. Grieving hard. We all are grieving. Everybody watched this baby. He was off the street. He loved ball, he love to dance he loved work," said Lane's godmother, Aleasha White.
“He had a family who loved him. He wasn’t in the streets, he wasn’t in a gang. He loved praise dancing," his cousins said.
Police are still investigating the shooting by the side of the road here. Police diverted traffic while mourners walked to the spot where the crime took place. Dre’s family can make no sense of it. Who targets a man who loves gospel dance?
A Ten Point Coalition pastor led about 200 mourners in prayer.
“If you can, if it’s possible, lift your hands up toward Heaven. Eternal God we come to you our Heavenly Father,” the pastor said.
They prayed for the devastated family and for the city after a devastating weekend.
“We are asking Heavenly Father that the trouble cease down here," the pastor continued.
Dre’s death and others this weekend sound the panic alarm for those trying to calm the violence.
Pastor Charles Harrison with Ten Point Coalition said, “Eleven people shot. We have six people killed. On the first warm weekend of this year. And within a 24-hour period of time and people are wondering what kind of spring or summer are we going to have."
The shooting scene is not part of the Ten Point Coalition's territory. But the anti-violence group embraced the neighborhood and the family.
“1,2,3...We love you Dre. Hallelujah! Oh, hallelujah!”
To those words, scores of red balloons rose to the evening sky.