It’s been two months since someone has been shot in Muncie.
“This week has been may be one of the quietest weeks since I have been assigned being in charge of detectives,” said Muncie Police Capt. Joe Todd.
Since the beginning of 2018, there have been six shootings — one a double shooting, and two accidental, according to crime logs from the Muncie Police Department.
The last shooting took place in the early hours of Feb. 18 at Uggly's Bar and Grill in the 1100 block of South Walnut Street.
Todd said an altercation that involved two females began inside, then spilled outside where two victims were shot.
Police arrested Chandler Harris, 34, Muncie, on April 2, and preliminarily charged him with possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and theft of a firearm, according to court documents.
Harris remains in the Delaware County Jail, according to the online inmate lookup.
A week prior, a Feb. 11 shooting in the 1500 block of East 7th Street left one person shot — and the witnesses and victim unwilling to cooperate with police. The case remains active.
The first shooting of the year happened Jan. 22 at a Village Pantry on the city’s south side.
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A probe into the case resulted in the arrest of two people, but neither were charged with weapons or murder-related charges.
Todd and Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkle said a combination of factors could contribute to the two-month absence of a shooting, but it could also be luck or the weather.
Since coming back to the department in November 2016, Winkle has made several changes.
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Now, some officers within the department have both marked and unmarked patrol cars, which they take home for personal use.
In January 2018, the department began a trial period, switching from eight-hour shifts, to 12-hour shifts. The goal was to put more officers on the road at all times.
“Now, I would like to see the reward of it. I would like to see the [department's] activity go up a little bit,” Winkle said.
RELATED: Muncie Police Department changes shift length for officers under trial period
Winkle and Todd both said having a good relationship with other agencies like Indiana Excise Police and Ball State University Police is important in order to protect Muncie.
“We do have a really good relationship with Ball State Police and a good relationship with the county,” Winkle said. “You know, it’s not unusual for us to be on a call and where one of those show up. That never hurts anything, and it’s good to have that kind of relationship.”
Winkle said that while there has not been a shooting in two months, officers have been dispatched to calls of shots fired.
For now, the amount of new cases given to investigators everyday is low.
“The crimes that come up here, that I assign to investigators, it’s way down,” Todd said. “Something’s going right.”
Winkle said when the weather warms up, people tend to be more active and outside more, sometimes resulting in more calls the department receives.
“Generally when the weather breaks, we tend to have more issues,” Winkle said. “It will be interesting just to see how the next few months go.”
Contact Andrew Smith with comments ajsmith15@bsu.edu at or on Twitter @AndrewSmithNews.
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