INDIANAPOLIS — For the third year in a row, October has been a violent month in Indianapolis.
With 34 homicides in 31 days, last October was the deadliest month in the history of the city. Unfortunately, one year later more than half of those cases remains unsolved.
Sitting inside a Jeep in a driveway along Grand Avenue in the middle of the day last October, a 29-year-old man was shot to death.
“Sometimes I’m just depressed. It’s not been easy,” said the victim’s mother Ebony Allen.
Ebony still doesn’t know what led to her son Christopher Richardson being killed.
Police told his mother they have a suspect in mind, but no arrests have ever been made.
“We need peace and right now I’m not at peace because the person who killed my son is still out there and it’s not fair,” said Allen.
Eight days after that death, 26-year-old Dazmond Morgan died in a separate killing.
“Definitely we want the public to understand we’re still mourning. We’re still looking for answers and don’t know what happened and it’s a year later,” said Morgan’s cousin George Taylor.
Morgan was shot in the parking lot outside a freshman dorm on the University of Indianapolis campus.
The victim was not affiliated with U-Indy. His family believes he planned to visit a girl when he was killed.
“You know he didn’t die in a bad neighborhood. He was at a college campus visiting a friend. It’s hard. It’s difficult to understand,” said Taylor.
With 31 homicides in October 2020 and another 34 deaths in 2021, October was the deadliest month of the year in each of the last two years.
Police and community leaders admit they can’t explain that trend.
At the same time, the families of Morgan and Richardson urged the public to speak up and bring justice to the unsolved deaths.
“There’s nothing wrong with helping a family in their time of mourning to figure out what happened to their loved ones,” said Taylor.
As always anyone with information on any unsolved case can contact either IMPD’s homicide office or Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS if they want to remain anonymous.
