INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD officers are searching for the person who fired off numerous shots just a block away from a busy Monument Circle.
It happened during a road rage incident on Christmas night and one of the bullets ended up lodged in the victim’s back seat.
The victim, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the ordeal began at the intersection of Capitol Avenue and South Street. He said a car nearly hit him as he was passing through the intersection.
The car sped off but the victim said he saw them again at a red light on Illinois Street near Union Station.
“I asked, ‘Hey are you OK? Are you guys good?’” the victim said. “Then they started making it seem like it was my fault and you could tell that they were extremely intoxicated.”
The victim said he told the people in the other vehicle that he was going to call the police and that’s when things escalated.
“Obviously you’re drunk and you’re gonna kill somebody if not yourself, and that’s when she said she was gonna shoot me and pulled up a gun so I took off,” the victim said.
He said he dialed 911 and the other vehicle kept following him. The victim said as he neared another red light at Illinois and Market Street he heard the sound of a bullet striking metal.
“I recognized it… and I took off and that’s when I heard bang bang bang again,” the victim recalled.
That bullet went through and luckily was stopped by his back seat. He said he was able to get away from the shooter and pull into a parking lot where he waited for police to arrive.
Police canvassed the area near Market and Illinois for bullet casings but IMPD said they weren’t able to locate any. The department said it doesn’t believe anyone or anything else was hit by gunfire other than the victim’s vehicle.
“Think about if this was you, if this was your kid or if this was someone you really loved,” he said. “Would you think that this is the solution?”
The victim said he had a gun with him in his vehicle when the shooting occurred and has had years of marksmanship training. He said his biggest fear was that he would have to fire back and end someone’s life.
“When I got up to that stoplight where I couldn’t keep going and I thought I was going to have to get out and shoot — I don’t miss,” he said. “If I would’ve been put in that position, they wouldn’t be alive.”
He said the shooter was lucky no other people were hit. The downtown area and Monument Circle were busy with people stopping by for a photo op with the Circle of Lights.
“It’s crazy that that’s what Indianapolis has come to,” the victim said.
IMPD said its investigators are still working to track down the shooter.
They said they advise people to never confront another driver and let officers handle the situation instead.
Anyone with information is asked to contact IMPD or CrimeStoppers at 317-262-TIPS.
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