INDIANAPOLIS — The Marion County Prosecutor's Office charged a 13-year-old suspect with murder and burglary in juvenile court in connection to an apparent home invasion on the near east side. On Wednesday, the prosecutor's office told 13News it made a request to waive the 13-year-old to adult court.
An Indianapolis grandmother was shot during the home invasion and later died at the hospital, following the Oct. 10 incident in her home on Windsor Street.
People in the neighborhood expressed fear, frustration and profound sadness for the loss of their beloved neighbor.
Martha Latta lives across the street and said 69-year-old Antonia (Toni) Macri-Reiner became fast friends with anyone she met.
The crime has Latta stunned.
"If you can't be safe in your own home, then where can you safe?" Latta asked. "She had a grandbaby on the way. I mean she loved her grandchildren so much. She was so kind-hearted. She was really open to meeting people and really open to being involved in the neighborhood. She would be out here doing this if it were anybody else. She would be probably standing where I'm standing trying to help somebody else's family."
IMPD said around 4 a.m. Oct. 10, someone shot Reiner in her own home.
Her husband, daughter and grandson, also inside at the time, were not injured in the attack.
Detectives told neighbors the shooter went in a back window.
"The night after it happened, everybody was on edge wanting to know if they'd caught anybody? Are we safe?" Latta asked.
Police announced that they arrested a teenager in connection with the crime, just hours after Reiner died at the hospital.
"Like nobody understands why this happened," Latta said. "It just makes you sick, like why does it, why would a child, a juvenile, do something like this?"
Friends, heartbroken at her death, also want to honor Reiner's life.
She was a hypnotherapist and a ceramic artist, who Latta said brought light to the neighborhood with her kind nature and her love for gardening.
"And it was gorgeous. People loved to walk by and see it, and they would stop and talk to her about her flowers in her yard," Latta said.
Since the shooting, she said the days have felt darker here, as a family and neighborhood community try to cope with this senseless loss.
"It's going to be really hard for the neighborhood to recover from this. It's going to take a long time, not just for their family," Latta said. "Their family is forever changed, but I think it's going to really forever change this neighborhood too."
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On Oct. 12, family, friends and neighbors gathered to celebrate Reiner's life with a candlelight vigil outside the home.
Police continue to ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.