INDIANAPOLIS — After more than a year of public safety walks in the community, the North Shadeland Alliance is discontinuing them at the direction of a new apartment management team.
Every Tuesday evening, volunteers would engage with residents at Lake Castleton Apartments on the northeast side near 75th Street and Shadeland Avenue.
The alliance made the announcement on Facebook Tuesday, saying, “After a three-year partnership spanning two owners, many management teams, and almost 18 months of public safety walks in the complex, management for Lake Castleton Apartments informed us yesterday that they would be terminating our partnership, and we are to discontinue our public safety walks.”
On Wednesday, 13News went to the leasing office to ask why. Employees there directed us to the vice president of operations for Indianapolis, who works out of Ohio. We called and emailed her, but she did not respond to any of our questions.
Rev. Charles Harrison said this is a huge setback for the community. The Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition leader has supported the North Shadeland Alliance since it started the safety walks.
He said the group has made a lot of progress in the area.
“We saw a dramatic decline in the number of homicides. I think we had seven homicides in 2021 in this area. It was reduced to two in 2022,” Harrison said.
One of those included a man who was shot and killed on New Year’s Eve. On Sunday, two more people were shot at the complex.
The most recent gun violence happened less than a mile away from Pastor Matt Landry’s church on Easter morning.
“On a day of great joy and celebration to hear about the gun violence that happened as we worshipped just down the street was disappointing. It was sobering,” Landry said.
Landry was also shocked by the abrupt decision. He recently held a vigil for one of the homicide victims in January.
“For them to respond to another act of gun violence on their property this way was certainly disappointing,” he said.
As the neighborhood works to rebuild this partnership, community leaders say the crime problem can’t be ignored. They say this recent decision from the apartment management teams sends the wrong message.
“If we are going to reduce the violence in this complex, they are going to need the community to help them,” Harrison said.
The North Shadeland Alliance said on Facebook that they, “will continue to work in our community to bring safety and prosperity to all residents and organizations to the best of our abilities.”