INDIANAPOLIS -- The Ten Point Coalition held a press conference to celebrate Highland Vicinity reaching one year without a homicide – a positive milestone, to be sure, but nothing unusual for the neighborhood.
Rev. Charles Harrison was joined by IMPD Chief Bryan Roach and Highland Vicinity residents to mark 365 days since the murder of 27-year-old Cullen Hubbard on Aug. 2, 2016.
Hubbard’s fatal shooting in the 2900 block of Capitol Avenue was one of two homicides in the neighborhood last year. The other, the murder of 25-year-old Robert Johnson, occurred in the 2500 block of Shriver Avenue.
Both of those homicides remain unsolved.
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Harrison, whose Ten Point Coalition started conducting limited anti-violence patrols around the 29th Street and Capitol Avenue area in March (and began full-time patrols in the neighborhood in June after receiving a $50,000 grant from the CICF), tied the homicide-free streak to the partnership between police and residents in the area.
“It has been an uphill battle over the years to address this epidemic, but today I have some good news,” Harrison said. “Today we are here to congratulate Highland Vicinity for reaching a milestone of going one year without a homicide.”
But, while a year without a murder is nothing to complain about, it’s also nothing unusual for Highland Vicinity.
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Between 2007 and 2011, the neighborhood saw zero homicides for four years straight. That streak ended with the murder of 20-year-old Dominque Corder on Jan. 2, 2011.
After that, it would be 917 days until the next murder in Highland Vicinity. Following that case – the murder of 22-year-old Joshua Aubrey – Highland Vicinity went homicide-free for another 516 days.
On the whole, since Jan. 1, 2011, Highland Vicinity has gone an average of 400 days between homicides. Highland Vicinity won’t break its average number of homicide-free days until Sept. 7.
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For Harrison, celebrating the one-year mark was important symbolically for the community.
“It gets neighborhoods excited about it,” he said. “It helps people get more engaged. And it encourages other neighborhoods across the city that they can do something about the violence in their neighborhoods.”
In all, Highland Vicinity has seen six homicides since 2010 – three of which occurred in the two-block area from 28th Street to 30th Street along Capitol Avenue.
Joshua Aubrey, 22, was shot and killed in 2013 in the 2800 block of North Capitol Avenue. Two years later, 45-year-old Shawn Nash was killed just north in the 2900 block of North Capitol Avenue. Then, last year, 27-year-old Cullen Hubbard was killed in the very same block.
Highland Vicinity’s neighbor to the north, Crown Hill, also went more than a year without a homicide – breaking a 17-month murder-free streak in April when 33-year-old Patricia Goodall was fatally shot.
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Across 38th Street to the north, the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood hasn’t seen a homicide since 2015, when four people were fatally shot within a span of a few months.
The biggest challenge in Ten Point’s patrol areas remains the United Northwest neighborhood, which has seen five criminal homicides so far this year – most recently the murder of 55-year-old Kim Miller in May.
The fatal shooting of Aaron Bailey by IMPD officers also occurred within the greater United Northwest Area, but happened past the southernmost boundary of Ten Point’s patrol area.
Harrison said Ten Point’s next step is to move into the Mapleton-Fall Creek area. Several Ten Point members are already working in the 34th Street and College area, and Harrison hopes to gradually increase Ten Point’s footprint in the neighborhood in the months ahead.
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