Editor’s Note: The victim was originally identified by police as a woman. On Tuesday, IMPD reported the victim was actually a teenage male. This story has been updated to reflect this new information.
INDIANAPOLIS — A 17-year-old teenager was shot and injured after a shooting occurred at Riverside Park’s basketball courts on Monday evening.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, police were called to the park at around 8:48 p.m. on report of a person shot. Officers arrived on scene and found no victim in the vicinity, however.
Police said the victim, a teenage male, wound up at Methodist Hospital. Police are unsure if the victim drove himself or was dropped off at the hospital.
The teenager is listed as being in stable condition.
At this time, police believe the shooting stemmed from a disturbance that occurred on the basketball courts at the park.
“The information they have is that individuals were playing basketball, heard a couple gunshots and then felt pain from the gunshot wound,” said IMPD Lt. Shane Foley.
On Tuesday afternoon, there were no signs of the shooting that had happened the night before. Folks in the park said they feel safe there.
“No problem. Everybody’s polite, walks past, greet peoples, keep, it moving,” said Kortney Bond. “Food trucks are normally out, people playing horseshoes, it’s like a community hub.”
Bond walks in the park three or four times a week.
”Like anybody else, I’m tired of gun violence,” Bond said. “I’m tired of hearing about people getting hurt or harmed because of it.”
Foley said there are patrols around that park.
”We have officer that patrol that area,” he said. “It’s right by our garage, so we have officers that go by that areas on a pretty regular basis.”
This is the third shooting at an Indianapolis park in less than two weeks. The first happened on May 16 at Bertha Ross Park, a man was shot there.
Two days later, shots were fired at Thompson Park, but no injuries were reported there.
With a teenager hurt Monday night, Foley is asking the community to be responsible.
Take care of our juveniles, take care of our youth,” Foley said. “Parents need to parent, adults need to be adults and be responsible for those that are with them.”
No further information has been released at this time as the investigation remains active and ongoing.
”We’ve had success in identifying and making arrests,” Foley said. “We had two arrests in shootings this weekend and a lot of that comes from cooperation from members of our community who are providing information to our detectives that lead to these arrests.”
Anyone with information about the shooting can call Crime Stoppers at (317) 262-TIPS.
Eric Graves contributed to this report.