Seven children, ages 12 to 17, wounded in Indianapolis mass shooting, police say
Seven children between the ages of 12 and 17 were wounded in one of the US’s latest mass shooting, which erupted outside a shopping mall in downtown Indianapolis late Saturday night, authorities said.
Police officers patrolling the area heard shots fired near the Circle Centre Mall shortly after 11.30pm, said the deputy chief of the Indianapolis metropolitan police department, Tanya Terry.
The officers found “a large group of juveniles” at the scene, including six who had gunshot wounds and were transported to area hospitals, Terry said during a news briefing at the scene early on Sunday morning.
One of the victims was upgraded from critical to stable condition. The other victims all were listed in stable condition, said Terry, who was not able to immediately provide the genders of the victims.
A seventh child with a gunshot wound arrived separately at a hospital and was in stable condition, she said.
“Once again, we have a situation in which young people are resolving conflict with firearms, and it has to stop,” Terry said. “Conflict should not lead to somebody pulling out a gun and trying to resolve it. The consequences are eternal.”
Investigators believe there was more than one gun used in the shooting, Terry said.
No arrests were made, and police did not immediately have any suspects, she said.
According to the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive, the shooting in Indianapolis was among more than 90 mass shootings in the US so far this year. The archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are injured or killed.
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Perenially high rates of mass shootings in the US have inspired calls for more substantial gun control from some political quarters, though any measures enacted are lax when compared to many other countries with lower rates of violence.