INDIANAPOLIS -- As a police officer, there are days you work that stick with you for a long time.
For two Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers, January 30, 2017, was one of those days.
It was just before 7 p.m. when police were called to the back parking lot of Popeye’s Louisiana Chicken on the city’s west side for a victim who had been shot.
At the time, no one knew that victim was only 14 years old.
Officers Melissa Lemrick and Jason Norment were first on the scene; Chief Bryan Roach said they were there within a minute.
“Your training kicks in. It’s very surreal after the fact, but at the moment it feels like anything else you would do,” said Officer Lemrick.
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The two officers performed CPR on the young boy as other emergency personnel arrived on the scene, anything they could do to try to save his life.
“Trying to wake him up, I wasn’t really sure if he was overdosing. I had no idea. He wouldn’t wake up,” said Officer Norment.
Then they learned their victim was only 14, something that both say caught them by surprise.
“It kinda hit me; he’s so young. I can’t believe this is happening,” said Officer Norment.
Anthony didn’t survive the shooting and police are still searching for his killer.
Family and friends gathered with police officers earlier this week at a memorial that now sits where the young boy was shot.
Although they couldn’t save Anthony’s life, Officers Norment and Lemrick are hoping someone will come forward with information that will help police solve his murder.
“If they know anybody. If there’s a suspect. If there are any quarrels that this child was in, maybe we don’t know about yet. All that information helps, even the littlest things,” said Officer Lemrick.
Anyone with information that might help police solve this crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at (317)262-8477.
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