INDIANAPOLIS — The last two years have been anything but easy for Wayne Hughes when it comes to raising his 14-year-old son.
"I've sat up at night thinking, 'When my phone rings next, is it going to be the coroner or IMPD?'" Hughes said.
Hughes said his son has run away more than a handful of times since he was 12 years old. He even sends updated pictures of his son to the detective who often oversees his case.
"This time, it was two months that he was gone. It's never been quite two months since he's been gone, so this time it was more nerve-wrenching wondering where he is and what he's doing. The weather changed. So, yeah, it was horrible," Hughes said.
But over time, running away gradually turned into stints in juvey where his son is today. According to Hughes, his son was arrested in December after he and two other teenagers allegedly robbed a man of his car at gunpoint at a gas station on 30th and Illinois streets.
"Now he's at a point where things have gotten serious and I'm getting no help still and I've talked to IMPD about it and I've even been on the phone with a officer and the officer told me, 'I'm not going to help you raise your son. When all I'm doing is asking for help,'" Hughes said.
Hughes said he's tried everything.
He's sent him to a behavioral treatment center, put him in therapy, sent him to camps, signed him up for sports and even asked a judge to keep his son in custody longer.
"Every time he goes, it's a slap on the wrist. They put him on GPS for maybe 30 days, maybe 60 days, he takes the band off and he's gone again. It's repetitive. It's the same thing every time," Hughes said.
And now, Hughes said he's struggling and has run out of options.
In June, the city hired Ralph Durrett as its chief violence prevention officer to focus on helping kids like Hughes' son. Durrett said his job is to work with community partners and meet youth where they're at, like at the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center.
"It's a tough time being in a detention center, especially for a young person around this time, so really building a relationship with them and to also engage them in an intensive way to build that relationship so when they're out of this situation, I'm a resource for them when they get out of that certain place," Durrett said.
Durrett also said his job is to identify gaps in curbing youth violence. But Hughes said there seems to be a gap getting assistance for parents.
"This is not necessarily on the community at large, this is on the organizations to be able to reach out and do the things they're supposed to do in the communities that they say they serve, so that's a gap within the organizations, which is some of the conversations I am having with them is to be able to make what they do more pervasive," Durrett said.
Durrett hopes his work will help parents like Hughes who says after exhausting all of his options so far, he hates to see his son locked up, but he's happy to know he's off the streets.