INDIANAPOLIS -- After years of persistent violence on the east side, one resident says the area has adopted a new set of landmarks for itself: The sites where friends, neighbors and classmates have died.
"It's just another way of marking memories around here on the east side," said Garhett Casteel. "We don't really go by landmarks over here anymore. It's become monuments to where people have died, whether it's ... you see places where, 'oh, that's where that one guy was killed over this stupid situation,' and that's now where school children are now waiting for the bus to school. Or, that's where this classmate from Warren Central ended up getting killed over this stupid reason."
Casteel has lived on the east side for nearly 30 years. His home near 20th Street and Mitthoeffer Road sits just blocks away from the Jordan's Fish & Chicken restaurant where two men were gunned down Tuesday night by armed robbers.
MORE | Men entered Jordan's Fish & Chicken double homicide scene with guns drawn
Casteel said it's stories like that which conflict him. On the one hand, he describes himself as a "proud Eastsider." On the other hand, he says he has very real fears about his safety.
"Gradually over the years I have more and more found myself wondering about the safety of this side of town, but I still believe in it," Casteel said. "I very much pride myself on being an Eastsider and coming from this side of town. We're Eastsiders: We're full of pride and we don't know why."
The east side has been one of parts of the city hardest-hit by the surge in violence over the past several years. In the Near Eastside Neighborhood, 24 people were killed in 2016 alone. The Far Eastside and East Warren neighborhoods saw a total of 14 people killed last year.
MAP | See all of 2016's homicides
All that violence has had a lasting impact, Casteel said.
"Coming from this side of town and having been in relationships where, you know, I'd stay with an ex at their house on a different side of town and it'd be very quiet, I couldn't tolerate that. I couldn't sleep well," he said. "They'd ask me, 'shouldn't that help you sleep?' I'd say, not where I'm from. I wouldn't feel safe if I didn't hear the sirens and the gunshots and the helicopters and seeing the searchlights go through my backyard. For some reason, that's the strange sense of security it gives you over here."
Casteel described most of his neighbors on the east side as "hardworking individuals who want to live a good, honest life." He hopes the rest of the city can see the same.
"My hope honestly is that a lot of people in this city realize there's a city worth saving, there's a city worth showing and representing," he said.
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RTV6 reporter Mike Pelton contributed to this story.
