INDIANAPOLIS — As the month of October wraps up, Indianapolis officially marks 31 homicides in 31 days, making it the deadliest month so far this year.
The city saw a similar trend in 2021 with 34 homicides in October and in 2020 with 31 homicides. Both times, October saw more murders than any other month.
13News combed through majority of the recent homicides this month and found a handful of them happened on the city’s near northeast side.
But when it comes to why October is so deadly, even the police don’t have a perfect answer. Assistant Chief Chris Bailey with IMPD said on Monday that they haven’t found an exact reason or trend that’s adding to the violence.
"There's no known connections that say we have this spree and that's what's frustrating about it. There's a lot of things frustrating about it, but one of the things is it's so random and so spread out. It would be easier if we could say they were connected because we'd know what direction to go to,” Bailey said.
With two months left in the year, police are also relying on the community’s help to stop this violent trend.
"We're as frustrated as anybody. The community has to help us. The community has to reform themselves, too. It can't just be on the police department all the time,” Bailey said.
Anyone with information regarding any of these homicides is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.