Stories of rising Indy youth violence 'shock the conscience.' But not everyone has given up
“I just wish I could have told him that I loved him,” the young Indianapolis mother said with tears in her eyes, dressed in a shirt covered in pictures of her son.
On the day he was gunned down outside his school, the 15-year-old boy was waiting for an Uber with his mother. Chrystyna McGibboney stepped a few feet away from her son to look for their ride home.
That’s when the shooting happened.
“I didn't get to ride with him in the ambulance,” McGibboney said. “I didn't get to say my last words with him.”
Families across Indianapolis are grieving as the city is facing an increasing youth violence problem.
Even as homicide totals are dropping closer to pre-pandemic levels from a historic peak in 2021, killings of people 17 and younger have steadily increased the last few years, according to data from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Devin Gilbert III was a freshman at KIPP Indy Legacy High School when he was killed in the Nov. 3 shooting. His mother is still piecing together what happened that day.
The teen called that afternoon and asked her to pick him up early. Investigators said there was a disturbance at the school before the shooting but have not confirmed if it involved Gilbert or the 15-year-old boy arrested in his death.
McGibboney didn’t have the chance to talk with her son about what was going on before he was shot while she stood nearby. The boy had plans to become a boxer and was protective of his family, including his one-year-old brother.
“He was my sunshine,” McGibboney said. “Devin always brightened up my day. I love all my other kids, but my first born that was my heart.”
Gilbert wasn’t always perfect, but McGibboney remembers how he taught his younger siblings to play sports and did yard work to help his older relatives.
“I just wish that these kids would put these guns away,” McGibboney said. “We are burying too many of our babies when our babies should be burying us.”
Indianapolis police investigated 25 homicides during 2023 in which a person 17 years or younger was killed. That number was even higher for Marion County when including three youth homicides handled by Speedway and Lawrence police.
“It's been overwhelming, it's been heartbreaking, it's been draining, it's been depressing,” said Anthony Beverly, who works with youth as part of his organization Stop the Violence Indianapolis.
Non-fatal shootings impacting youth in the city have also been on the rise since 2020, according to the Indianapolis Gun Violence Project.
Beverly and other local experts point to easy access to firearms, mental health issues and social media feuds spilling over into conflicts offline as the driving forces behind the increase in youth violence.
Exposure to gun violence and a lack of healthy relationships with older adults are also factors. In addition, experts in the city point to the root causes of all violence, such as a lack of transportation, safe housing, economic stability and healthcare.
“There are so many things that contribute to the violence that there isn't going to be one solution that magically makes everything better,” said Ashlyn Douthitt, who works for the youth mental health agency Reach For Youth.
Often when a young person is killed, the perpetrator is also young.
Indianapolis police have made arrests in six youth homicides from 2023 so far and suspects in three of the cases were teenagers. A fourth teen was arrested this year in connection with a youth homicide in Speedway.
“Not only are we losing the potential of the young person that died, but we have this other young person who made a decision that will impact them for the rest of their lives,” said Marshawn Wolley, a spokesperson and policy director with the African American Coalition of Indianapolis. “We also have families, friends, people that witness it and hear about it. There's all that trauma reverberating throughout the community.”
Experts say it’s important to remember that in some cases, young people caught up in the city’s violence are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Sometimes people want it to be an easy conversation and categorize kids as good or bad,” said Rebecca McCracken of the Marion County Youth Violence Prevention Coalition. “There are good kids getting shot and hurt. We like to paint an easy picture, and it's not the reality.”
Even as too many Indianapolis parents are facing the New Year without their child, those working to reduce the violence are far from giving up.
“There are young people making better decisions, they are taking the right steps and they do have a desire to do good,” Beverly said. “That gives me a lot of hope that we have the chance to intervene and reduce this and turn this thing around.”
Black youth disproportionately impacted by violence
At Christ Church Apostolic on the north side of Indianapolis in the 90s, Marshawn Wolley remembers the pastor praying over him and other young Black men in the congregation.
“There was a question of if Black males in certain neighborhoods would even live past 21,” said Wolley, who is now with the African American Coalition of Indianapolis. “The homicide rates were high, and it was like we were always in danger.”
As the father of an 11-year-old boy, Wolley is now starting to fear for his son’s safety in the city.
Black youth were eight times more likely to be shot in Indianapolis compared to youth of any other race or ethnicity, according to data compiled by the Indianapolis Gun Violence Project for the first half of 2023.
In addition, Black males account for more than 60% of youth homicide victims in the city since 2017, while Black females made up about 20%, data from Indianapolis police analyzed by IndyStar shows.
“The numbers for violence in the Black community should shock the conscience,” Wolley said.
From April: Derrick Houston Jr. had a bright future. A shooting then took the 15-year-old's life.
As a community leader, with a brother working a high ranking position at the police department, Wolley said he has all the resources he could ask for to keep his son safe, but he still worries.
“He’s getting to the dangerous age where soon he will want to go places with friends and explore the city,” Wolley said. “It's young kids, who have done everything right ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it's also kids making poor decisions.”
As the concerns for his son stay on his mind, Wolley and other leaders have ideas on how to reduce youth violence.
The coalition released a call to action in November with plans to engage the community and policy makers. Coalition members also planned to step up and increase the number of mentors, coaches and tutors working with youth in the community.
“It can't just fall on these organizations that work with youth alone,” Wolley said. “It must be multifaceted. It's organizations, the city, the police department but it's also parents and the business community. We need more horsepower."
Plans to join other organizations and call for responsible gun policies were outlined in the call to action. Finally, the coalition asked the philanthropic and business community to provide more resources for organizations engaged on the youth violence issue.
“One challenge is figuring out how to get all hands on deck to address this,” Wolley said. “You can't have a vibrant community with this level of violence, especially if the violence is concentrated in a particular part of the community."
Teen killed in July shooting was a force of positivity: 'She was like a magnet'
On a sunny December day, Quenton Boyd stood next to his stepdaughter’s grave and watched as dozens of pink and yellow balloons floated across the sky.
Boyd’s family, and the community of supporters who have become a second family, joined him at New Crown Cemetery. Many of them wore pink T-shirts and hoodies with the birthday girl’s face.
They hugged, said a prayer then sang two different versions of happy birthday. It was Serenity Wilson’s big day, and she should have been turning 17.
The Indianapolis teen, who was a straight A student at Lawrence North High School, should have been celebrating on a cruise with her family like she did for her previous birthday.
Instead, her loved ones gathered at her grave to celebrate her life.
The 16-year-old was killed in a shooting that erupted at a block party on the east side of Indianapolis in July. Four other people were injured in the gunfire that forced partygoers to flee in cars from a chaotic scene.
“She was like a magnet because no matter who came around, she would always provide positive energy,” Boyd said. “She was able to speak to the light in anybody and get to know them.”
More: Indy pastor calls for peace after teen shot and killed outside church during block party.
Wilson was going to be a senior in high school and liked to do TikTok dances. She planned on becoming a doctor, following in the footsteps of her aunt.
Wilson’s family is still waiting for answers as police have not announced any arrests in connection with her death, as of early January 2024.
“They took a precious part of me,” said Shmoine Boggan, the teen's grandmother. “The kids in this city have to put the guns down because I am so sick of burying our children. What kind of a future is there when kids resolve all their issues with guns?”
Youth organizations are having an impact, but more coordination is needed
It’s a Wednesday night and a group of young men gather inside a converted storefront on the east side of Indianapolis. They help set up a circle of metal chairs and socialize, but once the program starts, Kareem Hines ensures everyone is paying attention.
Hines uses the group meeting to connect with the young men in his program, called New B.O.Y. Mentoring & Youth Development.
The young men at New B.O.Y. are referred to the group through community members, the Department of Child Services or the juvenile justice center, which means some of them are on probation. The meeting starts with a prayer then Hines asks for volunteers to share good news.
A 15-year-old boy, who has been with the group for the past 8 months, shares that he is taking steps to enroll at a traditional high school.
"Match his energy," Hines tells the group.
Another boy, who has been working with the program for two weeks, says his grades are improving, and he hasn’t had any recent phone calls home from school for discipline reasons.
"Sometimes young men come into our program and it doesn't take us long to see the shift,” Hines tells the group. “The shift in mentality. Some young men take longer than others."
From October: Family thought he was playing basketball. Indy police say teen died in gun sale gone awry.
Through tough love and accountability, Hines makes sure everyone in the circle is listening, even as they touch on heavy subjects. When asked about the last time he saw his dad, a 13-year-old boy shrugs and says his father has been incarcerated his whole life.
Toward the end of the meeting, Hines shares two news articles about recent shootings involving teens in Indianapolis. He asks the young men to talk about what was scary in the two shootings and they discuss how easily someone could have gotten killed in each situation.
The last article he shares with the group is meant to inspire. It's about an Atlanta teen, who was accepted into more than 50 colleges and offered $1.3 million in scholarships.
For Hines, it’s easy to stay energized when he sees young people succeeding in his program every day. Most times, the successes aren’t heard about in the community, he said.
"We hear about these stories where we lose a kid, but for the one we lost there's another five or six kids taking the steps and elevating themselves," Hines said. "Those are the stories I get everyday that keep me going."
Beverly, of Stop The Violence Indianapolis, also sees young people making progress in his organization. It’s why he thinks Indianapolis already has the tools it needs to slow the violence.
Stop The Violence has prevention programs that proactively mentor youth and work with families. They also intervene and mentor youth after they have been arrested or gotten in trouble at school.
What the city needs is continued support for organizations working directly with youth and a more coordinated effort when it comes to intervention, Beverly said.
“We have a lot of good organizations,” Beverly said. “I don't think we are singing from the same sheet of music when it comes to working through a good strategy though.”
One step in the right direction would be the formation of an advisory board that focuses specifically on the intervention aspect in reducing youth violence, he said.
“We need somebody that has the ability to bring these groups together," Beverly said.
Teen killed in Speedway homicide was local soap box derby champion, the 'goofiest kid'
It was never about winning for Caiden Clements. At 13-years-old, a relative’s neighbor introduced him to Soap Box Derby.
“He was one of the most inquisitive kids I've ever been around,” Wade Hill said. “You couldn't even get through what you were trying to explain to him before he was on to the next question.”
After Clements got his questions answered, his next step was helping the competition by carrying cars for smaller boys.
“I'd tell him he needed to conserve his energy and not be so helpful,” Hill said. “He wanted to run around and be friends with everyone.”
Four years later and the 17-year-old was over 6 feet tall, but he stuck with the sport and worked with Hill to assemble a car that fit his long legs.
"It's not like football or basketball where aggressiveness wins out,” Hill said. “It's a thinking man's game. You make a small adjustment to your car and see if it's better. You go out and practice so you are driving as smooth as you can."
At some point, Clements figured it out and started winning soap box races locally, then he competed in the world championships in Akron.
From July: 'My son died for no reason': Indy mother questions bail system after 15-year-old son killed
Race days were some of Hill’s fondest memories with Clements, who was killed in a shooting just five days from his 18th birthday in November.
Before the gunfire, Clements and his friends were hanging out in the basement of a Speedway home. Someone pulled a black rifle out from under a bed and the group began passing it around.
The charging handle got pulled along the way, allowing a round to feed into the rifle's chamber. Not long after the group realized the chamber had loaded, Clements was shot. A 19-year-old was arrested and charged in Clements' death.
Kimberly Skaggs said her younger brother was a kind soul.
“Caiden was the funniest, goofiest kid,” Skaggs said. “He did everything to make other people smile. He was literally an overgrown child at times."
Her family should have had more time with Clements, his sister said.
“These guns are not toys,” Skaggs said. “I don't understand how these guns keep ending up in the hands of young kids. Why are these kids thinking they are toys to show off?”
'Make a connection with these young people'
Despite all of the heartbreak that Indianapolis families have suffered in 2023 because of youth violence, experts say the situation is not hopeless.
What’s needed is more people confronting the problem with their time, energy and money.
“Get involved,” Hines said. “Get off the couches, get from behind the pulpits in church, get from behind the podiums and get involved. Make a connection with these young people so you understand what they are going through.”
Youth violence resources
Stop the Violence Indianapolis
Contact: 317-692-9929, info@stoptheviolenceindy.org
Website: stoptheviolenceindy.org
NEW B.O.Y.
Contact: kareem.hines@att.net
Reach For Youth
Contact: 317-920-5900, 317-788-4451, rfy@reachforyouth.org
Website: reachforyouth.org
Marion County Youth Violence Prevention Coalition
Contact: mcyvpc@gmail.com, see website for contact form
Website: www.saferindy.com
Editor's note: This article was updated on Jan. 2, 2024, with end of year data on youth violence for 2023.
Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis homicides: More teens and kids are dying in the city
