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The cold-blooded teen even pulled the trigger on his 15-year-old brother while the younger sibling begged and bargained for his life. That sibling managed to survive the shooting, running to a neighbor’s house while bleeding from bullet wounds and knocking on the door for help.
After two trials, Raymond Childs III was found guilty in October of six counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of carrying a handgun without a license.
On Tuesday, a punishment was finally handed down for Childs’ heinous crimes as a judge sentenced him to 360 years in prison. The rest of Childs’ life will now likely be spent behind bars.
Slaying his own family
In the early hours of Jan. 24, 2021, a then 17-year-old Childs picked up a gun and set about killing every single person in his family home on North Adams Street. He gunned down his parents, stepmom Kezzie and father Raymond Childs II. His gunned down his brother and sister, 18-year-old Elijah and 13-year-old Rita. He even killed Elijah’s pregnant girlfriend Kiara Hawkins, and her near-term baby.
While Childs worked his way through the home, his 15-year-old brother Xavier awoke to the gunshots. Xavier hid while his brother went room-to-room executing their family. Xavier heard their father’s last words — “I love you, Raymond” — before Childs gunned him and their mother down.
Xavier tried to flee and save himself, but Childs didn’t plan to spare anyone. He chased his younger brother, holding a gun on Xavier who begged and bartered for his life. Xavier even offered Raymond Childs III $44 in blood-soaked currency.
“Please don’t kill me,” he begged his brother.
But Childs shot his younger brother anyway.
”He looked in his brother’s face and said nothing. He raised his gun, shot him in the leg, causing Xavier to fall, then he shot him a second time and left him for dead and he left,” prosecutors said during Childs’ trial.
Xavier, bloody and hurting, was able to limp to a neighbor’s porch and call for help. When police arrived, he told the officers “He shot them all.” When asked who, the wounded child said, “Raymond Childs.”
Police walked into the Adams Street house to find the dead scattered about the whole of the home. “We got five,” officers said over the radio.
Familicide over a curfew
In the wake of the incomprehensible murders, police learned the spark that set Raymond Childs III on his bloody rampage was a broken curfew. Turns out Childs had taken his father’s vehicle without permission the night before the murders. When he returned home after midnight, his father let Childs know he was in trouble and promised discipline would be meted out later.
But the 17-year-old Childs wouldn’t wait to find out what his punishment would be. Instead, he picked up a gun in the dead of night and meted out his own retaliation — planning for no one to escape his wrath.
As police officers at the murder scene began to piece together the unthinkable familicide that occurred on Adams Street, investigators learned that Childs had returned to the home in the aftermath of the murders with his girlfriend, acting as if he’d only just learned of the slaying of his family.
Childs’ girlfriend was with him when she heard about police being called to his family home, but Childs denied any knowledge of what might be wrong. The girlfriend later told police Childs was acting nervous when they arrived at the crime scene and “acted a clown.”
Childs was arrested later at a relative’s home in Plainfield thanks to his surviving brother telling police at the hospital what occurred inside the Adams Street home on Jan. 24, 2021.
Childs convicted and sentenced
Childs was ultimately convicted of six counts of murder after his second trial in October 2024. Childs’ first trial was declared a mistrial after emotional testimony prompted a family member to turn to Childs and ask, “Why did you do it, Raymond?”
During the sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Childs took the stand and addressed his surviving family. He didn’t apologize and he accepted no responsibility for their deaths.
”Just as I sit here four years ago I’m innocent,” Childs said. “There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about them and wish they was here. Even on my bad days, I tell myself they’re still here.
”I’m not a killer. I’m not a murderer. I’m not a bad person. And a lot of people honestly agree with that.”
Judge Charles Miller said the killing of the Childs’ family was one of the worst mass murders ever committed in Indianapolis history.
The prosecution thanked the victims’ families for the long, arduous journey that finally ended in a 360-year prison sentence.
“The defendant brutally murdered six people: his father, stepmother, older brother, younger sister, his older brother’s girlfriend, and her unborn child. There is no penalty that could ever reflect the harm and unimaginable loss caused by the defendant’s actions.
“This resolution would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of law enforcement, our trial team, and the victims’ families, who have shown incredible strength and resilience in the face of an unimaginable tragedy.
“We should join together to support and honor the families of Raymond Childs Jr., Kezzie Childs, Elijah Childs, Rita Childs, Kiara Hawkins, and Khaos Hawkins and the legacies they leave behind.
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears
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