Six Indianapolis residents were murdered in their home Sunday morning, including a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
Kezzie Childs, 42, Raymond Childs, 42, Elijah Childs, 18, Rita Childs, 13, Kiara Hawkins, 19, and the unborn child of Kiara Hawkins were shot and killed at approximately 4 a.m. on Adams St., just south of the 38th and Keystone intersection.
Indianapolis Metro Police Dept. Chief Randal Taylor called it “the largest mass shooting in more than a decade.”
“What happened this morning was not an act of simple gun violence,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett Sunday. “What happened this morning was a mass murder…This is a crisis of morality, a crisis of conscience.”
It’s also a crisis of leadership, according to WIBC host Tony Katz, who noted Monday that Mayor Hogsett also blamed the murders on “economic and personal uncertainty due to a global pandemic.”
LISTEN: IMPD Hogsett Press Conference
Katz: “There’s no doubt that people are experiencing economic issues. Maybe shutting down an entire city isn’t such a good idea, Mayor Hogsett.
“But it’s also disingenuous for the mayor to blame gun violence for these murders. This is not an issue of gun violence; this is an issue of who is pulling the trigger, and why culturally it happens, and why it happens in certain areas of the city and not others, and why you, sir, are not discussing what’s taking place and discussing it honestly.
“Yes, we have to deal with the violence in this city, and I will not get behind a plan that does not recognize that violence is cultural. And we cannot be afraid of being called racists or bigots or anything else in addressing it.
“We can and we should openly discuss whether there are issues that are taking place in a particular community. And if so, what are we doing culturally to address them?”
Click below to hear Tony’s full commentary.
