Shootings Prompt Response On City Efforts

A quadruple shooting on the east side of Indianapolis leaves four dead. The violence comes just hours after civic leaders debated a proposal for a public safety study.

Indianapolis City-County council members voted down a proposal to create a violence study commission.
 
At a press conference following the shootings, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett says the city doesn’t need another committee discussion.  
 
"The idea that if we only had one more bureaucratic entity studying violence, then our problems would be solved," says Hogsett. "That is ludicrous."
 
Hogsett says the systemic problems that lead to violence are well documented and include poverty, addiction, mental health and an inadequate juvenile justice system.

Hogsett says his office is invested in solutions.

"Our focus has been and will continue to be on action, not words, not committees, not commissions... but action," says Hogsett. 
 
At the press conference, Councilman Leroy Robinson chairs the city’s current public safety committee and says now is not the time for policy.
 
"I think it’s important that we focus on those four young lives and wrap our arms around the families," says Hogsett.  
 
The deceased, three men and one woman were between the ages of 19 and 21.