INDIANAPOLIS — A seventeen-year-old is dead and another teen is critically injured after a shooting Sunday afternoon on the city’s north side.
It happened along the 3800 block of Central Avenue. When IMPD officers arrived, they found two teenage boys shot, one inside a vehicle and the other nearby. Police identified the victim who died as 17-year-old Yonah Ben Jeffers-Telfair.
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One woman who lives nearby said she heard the gunfire and saw the aftermath unfold.
“I was home, and I heard the gunshots and saw everything,” she said. “I don’t want my neighbors to be dying, and I care about them because they’re my neighbors.”
The deadly shooting adds to a year of ongoing efforts to curb youth violence in Indianapolis.
According to data provided by IMPD, non-fatal shootings among people 17 and under are trending downward — 48 so far this year, compared to 63 in 2024 and 62 in 2023.
Despite that improvement, city leaders say too many young people are still turning to guns.
“You see the numbers trending down, but we still have way too many people being shot in our city,” said Tony Lopez, Deputy Director at the Office of Public Health and Safety.
Lopez says the focus now must shift to prevention. The city’s chief violence prevention officer, Ralph Durrett, recently stepped down, and Lopez says filling that role is a priority.
“We need to start really honing in on the prevention work,” Lopez said. “How can we help individuals who feel like their only option is to shoot someone?”
Community mentors echo that call for early and visible engagement. Kareem Hines, founder of New B.O.Y. Mentoring, says many of the teens he works with can access guns within minutes.
“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work and it needs to be more upfront,” Hines said. “If our communities and kids can see it and if we collaborate early we can start bringing more kids together.”
Police continue to investigate the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to contact IMPD or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana.
