INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD said the suspect who fled from a shooting at a gas station on the southeast side of Indianapolis Wednesday afternoon was arrested early Thursday morning.
Police responded to a report of a person shot in the 4900 block of East Thompson Road, near Emerson Avenue, shortly before 1:15 p.m.
“They found an adult male outside the business, just outside the doors, with injuries consistent with a gunshot wound,” said IMPD Sgt. Genae Cook.
Police said the victim was taken to Eskenazi Hospital in critical condition. They did not share his name.
Investigators believe the shooting resulted from some kind of dispute between the victim and another man.
IMPD said the shooter got away, but early Thursday said the suspect, 24-year-old Devontai Terrell, was located at an apartment in the 10000 block of Stonybrook Circle, near East 10th Street and North Mitthoeffer Road.
With assistance from SWAT, officers took Terrell and two other people in the apartment into custody. Multiple guns as well as drugs and other evidence were located inside the apartment, IMPD said.
Terrell was arrested on a preliminary charge of aggravated battery. The two other people were arrested on preliminary drug charges and possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, police said. They were not connected by police to the gas station shooting.
“It seems like senseless violence,” said Isham Manou, a gas station employee.
Manou said he walked into the gas station to start his shift as police cars were on the scene.
He described what he saw.
“It was pretty gruesome. It was pretty gross. There was blood everywhere. It seemed like the person who got shot was running all over the store after they got shot,” said Manou.
Manou said his co-workers feared for their lives.
“They said somebody bumped into somebody’s shoulder and they turned around and heard shots and they ducked down and that’s all they knew,” said Manou.
“They said it was horrible. They just ducked down and locked the door and was just hoping he was not coming for them," Manou said.
No one else was reported injured.
Cook pleaded with those who want to commit acts of violence to find other ways to resolve conflicts.
“All you do is cause further issues for themselves and for others. You’re not affecting just one person, you’re affecting an entire community,” she said.
“This is going to be a shock for the people in the neighborhood, finding out that this happened right here, right in their backyard,” said Cook.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.