Family mourns slain west Indianapolis man

INDIANAPOLIS — Forrest Grant had a few minor run-ins with the law over the years, but his family insists he was trying to be a peacemaker when he was shot to death at the corner of West Morris and Hiatt streets Thursday afternoon.

”The story I was told in walking through the neighborhood is somebody had stolen some money from somebody else, they were in an argument, my dad came up and tried to intervene and one thing led to another,” said Forrest Grant’s son, Joseph Grant.

At the crime scene, IMPD homicide detectives found a stick and a chunk of concrete and a bullet, and later a man they questioned who had a large wad of cash.

”I believe he stood up for somebody who was in an altercation, and in true Forrest fashion, it didn’t turn out in his favor,” Joseph Grant said.

Forrest Grant had been a resident of the Morris Street neighborhood west of Harding Street for a decade, meaning it’s quite likely he knew his killer.

”One of my father’s friends actually messaged me to give her a call,” said Forrest Grant’s daughter, Tiffany Brown. ”He was a great man. He was one that would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need, and he always did what he could to protect or help the less fortunate.”

Four of Grant’s five adult children live out west and flew back to Indianapolis to research their father’s killing.

”Forrest was born and raised in Indianapolis and was a pillar of his community no matter where he lived,” said Joseph Grant, who remembered what his dad stood for. ”To do the right thing is always the best. It’ll make our country, our world, a much better place if we all stood up and did what was right and what we believed to be right.”

IMPD homicide detectives said they’re still looking for the Forrest Grant’s alleged killer.

”It’s heartbreaking, to be honest,” Brown said. “It’s heartbreaking to receive that call that your loved one was murdered for no reason, no reason at all. He was a good man. He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this at all.”