Multiple People Shot Downtown During Black Expo Tonight

At least two people have been shot downtown tonight during the Black Expo celebration according to Fox59 News shortly after a teen event ended at Conseco Fieldhouse. Two separate shootings took place at the corner of Maryland and Illinois Street in front of the Steak-N-Shake and at Meridian and Capital Streets. Two victims have been taken to Methodist and Wishard Hospitals.

UPDATE: Radio talk show host Abdul Hakim Shabazz is reporting there are 7 shooting victims on his twitter site, including a 10-year-old. Shootings and criminal activity have become synonymous downtown with this event each year, particularly the second weekend of the event. WTHR is also confirming there are 7 shooting victims. Last weekend, a teen-ager was shot in the leg along the canal downtown as Black Expo kicked off its first weekend events. It doesn't look like Mayor Greg Ballard's crime prevention grant to Black Expo is doing much to prevent crime at this year's event.

UPDATE II: WISH-TV is now reporting there are 8 9 10 shooting victims. Live coverage showed a number of persons being arrested as numerous fights broke out downtown in the aftermath of these shootings. A tenth person waas shot  near the corner of Illinois and Market Streets following the first two shootings.

UPDATE III: Luckily, none of the shootings appears to have resulted in life-threatening injuries. Here's what the AP is saying:

Three separate shootings left 10 people wounded and scattered hundreds during an opening burst of gunfire in downtown Indianapolis during the crowded Indiana Black Expo, police said early Sunday.


Police spokesman Lt. Jeff Duhamell said authorities made no immediate arrests directly tied to the shootings and investigators were seeking leads to the suspects.

None of the victims' injuries were life-threatening, Duhamell told The Associated Press, adding that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department had made three unrelated arrests on weapons charges . . .
 
Duhamell said the shooting victims were all males between 10 and 18 years old. He said most were taken to Wishard and Methodist hospitals, where they were in good condition early Sunday. One person was treated at the scene.


Authorities say none of the shootings occurred at venues playing host to Black Expo activities, but police patrolling amid the crowd moving about the Downtown area quickly converged on the scene.

"It's pretty unusual to have this many shots in one time. It's very unfortunate," Duhamell said.

Duhamell said investigators had no immediate report on a possible motive but were trying to determine if any of the shootings were gang-related.


He said hundreds of officers had been assigned to policing the 10-day event, which concludes today.

I noticed during coverage of Black Expo's summer celebration events that there were very few people who showed up for the Teen Bling event at Conseco Fieldhouse where the Colts' Reggie Wayne and the NBA's Greg Odom were playing in a basketball game. News of last night's shooting is making national headlines. CNN has a story here, MSNBC has a story here, CBS has a story here and Fox News has a story here. With all of the talk of building the City's image during the latest give-away to the Indiana Pacers, one has to wonder whether this kind of national media coverage does harm to our city's reputation. I would also like to see a report on how much police over-time is costing us for this event. Reports indicated there were more than 300 police officers patrolling downtown last night.