INDIANAPOLIS -- Police looking to serve an arrest warrant arrested six people Thursday night after finding heroin, needles and meth pipes in an apartment just across from the Central Library.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday, two IMPD officers arrived at the Burton Apartments, located at 821 N. Pennsylvania Street, to serve an arrest warrant on 34-year-old Michael Rigney.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case, narcotics detectives had received a tip earlier in the day that Rigney, who was wanted on a warrant for possession of a syringe, could be found at the apartments.
The officers did, in fact, find Rigney inside a first-floor apartment in the building. While placing him under arrest, they also noticed a closed door leading to what they assumed, correctly, was the bathroom. Inside the bathroom, police say found a woman hiding and a hypodermic needle sticking out of the sink drain.
While securing that woman, the officers said the apartment’s actual tenant, 40-year-old Kara Randolph, began making “furtive movements.” Police asked her to remove her hands from her sleeve – at which point they say they discovered her attempting to conceal a clear plastic baggie containing a substance thought to be heroin.
At that point, officers removed everyone from the apartment and applied for a search warrant, which they were granted a short time later.
Execution of that warrant reportedly turned up several more syringes, along with at least two glass pipes believed to be used to smoke meth and baggies of marijuana and an unidentified white powder.
Cosmo Blake, 64, tells me his neighborhood near the Central Library is worse than he ever remembers: “People’s overdosing all the time. Ambulance runs here are regular. People on the streets, you know, just dropping. It’s just totally out of hand." pic.twitter.com/MOr0aYeOuV
— Jordan Fischer (@Jordan_RTV6) May 4, 2018
According to the affidavit, Randolph then told police they would find multiple “rigs” – the term heroin users use to describe the paraphernalia for injecting heroin – in her purse and a bag belonging to Rigney. Police also learned where they could find two more pipes used to smoke meth.
Ultimately, police placed six people under arrest, including Rigney and Randolph, on charges of possession of narcotics, possession of a hypodermic needle and maintaining/visiting a common nuisance.
The Burton Apartments are run by Partners in Housing (PIH) and serve formerly homeless and extremely low-income tenants, according to the organization’s website. PIH could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.
Cosmo Blake, 64, who lives in the area and says he knows the people who Burton Apartments, said he feels like PIH is doing the best it can.
"They’re trying to filtrate and screen people they bring in to their rentals. They’re dedicated folks," Blake siad. "They help people in the community, get them off the streets… but, you know, addiction is addiction.”
The arrests are the latest in a series of incidents around the Central Library, beginning with a knife attack in early April that resulted in at least four people, including the suspect, being hospitalized.
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Then, in late April, 57-year-old Stanley Jones was critically wounded when he suffered a head injury during a fight in the 700 block of North Meridian Street. Jones ultimately died of his injuries.
Blake, who has lived in the neighborhood for the past six years, says things are as bad in the area as he's ever seen them.
“People’s overdosing all the time. Ambulance runs here are regular. People on the streets, you know, just dropping. It’s just totally out of hand," Blake said.
IMPD has said it plans to step up the presence of officers in the area, and the Central Library has its own security team in place to respond to incidents. To date, none of the incidents have occurred on library property.
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