Indy sees 6-year low in homicides through February 2025

INDIANAPOLIS — Deadly violence in Indianapolis is trending down.

Over the first two months of 2025, the total number of homicides was the lowest in six years.

While this year’s homicide numbers include a lot of good news, community leaders say there’s still work to be done to make sure fewer families have to mourn the loss of their loved ones.

Deandra Staples was just 14 years old when someone shot her in January and left her to die in the snow at the Laurelwood Apartments.

Her murder marks the only fatal shooting of a juvenile victim so far this year and one of 24 people killed overall.

“It is tragic. There are families who are still grieving,” said Aaron Williams with the City of Peace Coalition. “A 14-year-old child lost her life, and that’s a child that will not get to enjoy high school.”

Despite that tragedy and others like it, so far, 2025 has seen the fewest homicides year to date in Indianapolis since 2019.  The numbers are well below any of the previous 5 years.

Some believe better communication and partnership with IMPD has helped reduce the number of people being killed.

“The numbers are trending in the right direction. We attribute that to great community and police collaboration work, but again we have to do more,” said Williams.

“When we see these numbers, we want to share the message of hope,” said Tony Lopez, Indy’s deputy director of violence reduction.

Lopez, who works with the Office of Public Health and Safety, agreed that community engagement is key to preventing violence.

“When we think about our gun violence reduction strategy, it’s always about our collaborations and our partnerships,” said Lopez.

While IMPD continues to use specialty units like the Indiana Crime Guns Task Force to target repeat violent offenders, OPHS and their partners will continue working to identify people and neighborhoods that are at high risk and get them the help they need before issues escalate to gunfire.

Both Williams and Lopez said they know there’s still a lot of work to be done to make the city safer.

“This is not the time to say alright this is good enough,” said Williams.

“Where we’re seeing great numbers and we’re happy and we’re hopeful, we need to see all our community members stay safe,” said Lopez.

Even with the lower numbers, a vast majority of the homicides this year remain unsolved. As always, anyone with information on any unsolved violent crime can contact either IMPD’s Homicide Office or Crime Stoppers at (317) 262-TIPS.

As part of an effort to improve transparency of crime stats, IMPD chief Chris Bailey still hopes to launch an online portal this year that will allow the public to view crime stats at any time.