INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD said a teenager was shot and killed at an apartment complex near 38th Street and North Sherman Drive around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Marion County Coroner's Office identified the victim as 13-year-old Dayon Lyles.
Witnesses recall hearing a barrage of gunfire.
"We were sitting outside, me and my son pulled up and we heard gunshots," said Kisha Wilkerson, whose mother lives at the complex. "When we heard the gunshots, we got down in the car. Once everyone was done screaming and hollering, we got out and the little boy was laying on the ground."
Another resident said he heard around a dozen shots.
"It sounded like one was coming from that side, about six shots. Another six shots from this side," Warren Bullock said. "I came out and saw the young man."
Police said Lyles was killed in the crossfire of a disturbance he had nothing to do with.
“We didn’t hear no argument, all we heard is the kids coming out here playing," Bullock said. "They had to be just running through.”
Bullock said he has two young children himself.
"I got a 4-year-old and I got a 1-year-old and they run around here," he said. "I just told my wife last night, man, I got to get them in before it gets dark outside."
Dayon's mother, Shawna Lyles, said she was at home in this apartment complex that night.
"Angry, sad, mixed emotions, everything. Just trying to keep it together," Lyles said. "I just heard gunshots and I knew my son was outside and came outside and my son was shot, struggling to breathe."
She told 13News her son was a basketball player, a good kid and didn't get into trouble.
"I just know that my son was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Lyles said. "Some people got into it out here and shot my son."
Police and the victim's mother are asking for whoever's responsible to come forward.
"I don't have nothing nice to say," Lyles said when asked what she would say to the shooter. "I just want them to be caught. Just turn yourself in, which you're probably not going to do."
If you have any information about this incident, you're asked to reach out to IMPD or submit a tip anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at 317-262-8477.