NFL Player Scuffles With Police At Downtown Homicide Scene

This weekend brought another shooting in downtown Indianapolis that left one person dead and another person seriously injured in the early morning hours as bars were closing. New details of the shooting have emerged, including the arrest of a wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers for resisting arrest and public intoxication. WISH-TV's A.J. Colley has the details on the arrest of Legedu Naanee:

An NFL wide receiver was at the scene of a downtown Indianapolis homicide early Saturday morning and was arrested on preliminary charges of public intoxication and resisting law enforcement.


San Diego Chargers wide receiver Legedu Naanee, 27, was arrested at about 3:20 a.m. Saturday near Meridian and Jackson streets, following a homicide police were investigating. Police reports don’t indicate he was involved in the shooting that left one person dead and another seriously injured.

According to police reports, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police encountered Naanee while doing crowd control at Meridian and Jackson streets, following the shooting . Police say Naanee began walking into the crime scene, which was marked with yellow police tape. Police tried stopping him, when Naanee refused and said, “Why are you being an (expletive)?” Police continued to ask him to walk the other way, the report says, but Naanee kept repeating his comment.

After Naanee’s repeated refusal to leave the area, and after police smelled alcohol on his breath, Naanee was arrested, according to reports. But when police tried handcuffing him, he resisted. Police sprayed Naanee with pepper spray twice, but he continued to resist.

Naanee was eventually arrested, after which he said to police, “Do you know who I am?” reports said. He also told police, “I am an NFL player, and I am going to sue your (expletive).”

Hey, be thankful it wasn't one of the Pacers. Apparently Naanee is about to be released by the Chargers and was in town with his agent according to a San Diego news report. Hopefully he's not looking a for spot on the Colts team.

I'm convinced most of downtown will wind up becoming a green zone during the week of the Super Bowl festivities next year where anyone wishing to enter the area will have to be credentialed or pass through metal detectors and be subjected to patdowns in order to enter the restricted area. City leaders are so worried about one of these shootings we've become accustomed to taking place on a fairly regular basis in the downtown area occurring during the Super Bowl festivities that they will pull out all of the stops necessary to make sure the city's reputation isn't soiled.

UPDATE: A special effort is now being made by IMPD to get illegal guns off the streets--at least in the downtown area according to this report from the Star's John Tuohy:

Police are beefing up patrols and homing in on illegal gun owners who come Downtown, after a fatal shooting over the weekend outside a South Meridian Street bar.


"If you have an illegal firearm, don't come Downtown," said Clifford Myers, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department deputy chief of investigations. "Downtown is our sanctuary, the gem of the city, and we are sending a message that we will do everything we can to make sure it stays safe."

The crackdown comes after the third shooting incident in three weeks on a busy Downtown street, a development that has some merchants worried that the public could start perceiving the district as dangerous . . .

Police and city officials insisted the Downtown -- an area with the lowest crime rate in the city -- remains safe.


"Most people know that Downtown is safe," said City-County Councilman Ben Hunter, chairman of the public safety committee. "I'm not worried about it now. If the trend continues, that could change."

It was the fourth shooting incident Downtown since October . . .

City officials said the age of those involved and the apparent brazenness of the perpetrators have alarmed them.


"We are concerned about the prevalence of firearms in the hands of young adults and the frequency by which disputes result in violence," said Carolin Requiz Smith, the city's deputy director of public safety.

If the Department of Public Safety is concerned about the prevalence of firearms in the hands of young adults, some long-time IMPD officers question the department's concern about the role drugs play in gun violence. I'm told Public Safety Director Frank Straub has dissolved the strategic narcotics unit within IMPD that focused investigations on drug suppliers who put most of the drugs on the street in Indianapolis. The unit used wiretaps and other undercover operations to target upper level suppliers and dealers, while district commands focus primarily on small-time dealers and those who possess drugs illegally. Straub had deemed the strategic unit as redundant policing.  "He just gave a pass to the big suppliers who peddle most of the dope in our city," according to a source. In addition, with all of the policing efforts being refocused on the "gem of the city" in preparation for the Super Bowl, expect policing in the neighborhoods to suffer.