A teenager is dead and students on a school bus became witnesses to the crime Thursday morning after a shooting on the east side of Indianapolis.
“Enough is enough,” said Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer Samone Burris. “Gun violence is not the answer… Gun violence is not going to get our community where it needs to be.”
The school bus driver called 911 after she turned from East 38th Street and saw the injured teenager in the grass. He was found near the intersection of Breen Drive and Brentwood Avenue in a residential area.
He was identified as Derrick Marshi Houston Jr., 15. Officers were dispatched around 6:30 a.m. and Houston was transported to a hospital in critical condition, where he died.
Houston was a student at Arsenal Technical High School, according to a statement from Indianapolis Public Schools.
“Crisis counseling services are being made available today for students and staff at the school,” the statement from the school district reads. “Our thoughts are with the student’s family, our staff and students.”
About 20 students were on the bus when the driver stopped to call 911. The students were kept on the scene for a couple of hours before being picked up by parents or transported to school on a different bus, Burris said.
A principal from the school responded to the scene. East 38th Street was full of morning traffic as investigators huddled and squad cars blocked off the intersection near where the teenager was found.
As Burris updated reporters on the shooting and detectives continued investigating across the street, more students lined up at a bus stop on East 38th Street.
“It’s a tragedy,” Burris said. “A teenage victim. The death of someone’s child is a tragedy. Our community is heartbroken this morning.”