INDIANAPOLIS — A shooting in a bar-hopping Indianapolis neighborhood that injured seven people may have been set off by two people bumping into each other in the street, police said Saturday.
“It looks like it was two guys bumped into each other and it took off from there,” Indianapolis Police Chief Rick Hite said. “There was no rhyme or reason.”
Police arrested a 23-year-old man on a preliminary charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and questioned him about the shooting. He was not charged in connection with the shooting, police spokesman Lt. Chris Bailey said.
As of Sunday, police had not made any arrests.
“We don’t know who the shooter was yet — shooter or shooters,” Bailey said.
Investigators were still trying to sort out what happened more than 12 hours later and were hoping witnesses would come forward once the initial fear had worn down.
“We know some of the things that happened, but we need confirmation,” Hite said.
Police said one man was in critical condition at a local hospital. Five other men and a woman also were shot, but did not have life-threatening injuries, authorities said. All of the victims are in their 20s.
Hite said numerous officers, even those who were off duty, responded to the gunfire about 2:23 a.m. Saturday in Broad Ripple, about a half-hour before the bars were to close at 3 a.m. The neighborhood about eight miles north of downtown Indianapolis has many bars and restaurants and is a popular spot with college students and other young people.
“I’ve been told there were quite a few people out ... on a typical Friday night, bouncing from bar to bar,” Bailey said at a news conference earlier in the day. “Someone opens fire in a crowd like that, we’re lucky more weren’t hurt.”
Hite said such incidents could be avoided if people simply didn’t carry their guns when they went out partying.
“Late night, drinking and weapons don’t mix,” Hite said.
Rob Sabatini, who owns three bars in the area, told The Indianapolis Star that the streets were crowded before the shooting.
“The bars will be half-empty, but the streets are packed,” he said. “It’s wall-to-wall people outside, and God forbid you bump into someone and they don’t like it.”
The shootings are the latest in a violent year for Indianapolis, which is on track to rival its record of 162 homicides, set in 1998.
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