INDIANAPOLIS — A 20-year-old man is charged in connection with a shooting that left two people injured at VASA Fitness on the west side of Indianapolis on Feb. 6.
Steve Valdez-Rivera is charged with aggravated battery and battery by means of a deadly weapon.
IMPD’s Violent Crime Unit located Valdez-Rivera near East 79th Street and Harcourt Road earlier Monday, Feb. 12. He was taken into custody without incident, with the assistance of IMPD’s K-9 unit.
The shooting happened around 8:30 p.m. in the 6900 block of West 38th Street, just west of Interstate 465, just inside the front door of the facility, according to IMPD Capt. Mark McCardia. The gym was full of people when police arrived, he said, leading to a chaotic scene.
McCardia said the victims, a 22-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy, were taken to local hospitals for treatment.
An arrest report says the 16-year-old was shot in his left ankle, which was broken and needed surgery. Raul Alvarez, who spoke with 13News after the shooting, was the 22-year-old man who was shot in his right calf.
According to the arrest report, surveillance video showed a verbal altercation between the Valdez-Rivera and three other people. Detectives said video then showed Valdez-Rivera reach the gym's entry/exit doors, pull out a handgun and start shooting before running away. Police said two innocent bystanders were the ones who were hit by bullets, and the three people who were involved in the verbal altercation with the Valdez-Rivera ran into the recovery and kid care areas before leaving the gym in a car.
The arrest report says forensic technician officers recovered a dozen bullet fragments, four .45 caliber fired cartridge casings and one unfired cartridge from the gym after the shooting.
Detectives said the Valdez-Rivera's car was still in the VASA Fitness parking lot after the shooting. Detectives were then granted a search warrant for Valdez-Rivera's car, where they found a BMV registration and photo of a male and female together, which allegedly matched the person seen in surveillance video firing shots.
After police took Valdez-Rivera into custody at an apartment complex six days after the shooting, detectives tried to speak with him about the incident, to which Valdez-Rivera allegedly asked to have a lawyer present.
Gymgoers were able to return to their workout space on Saturday, Feb. 10, hoping to put the memories of the shooting behind them.
"It's very sad that something like this could happen in this space that means so much to all of us," said Eloise Eve, who has been going to VASA Fitness on 38th Street since it opened, working out five days a week. She left about 30 minutes before shots were fired.
Off-camera, a woman told 13News she was near the lobby when she heard gunshots. She was close to the teen who got shot near the front desk in the lobby and said she jumped into action to help the teen by putting pressure on his wound and stabilizing his leg until medics arrived.
"It feels a little bit like the rug has been pulled from under us today, but I have no doubt, knowing what this place means to the people in this community and certainly those people who spend as much time here as I do," she said. "We'll be here for them to get back to business as usual so we can be together again."