INDIANAPOLIS — On a rainy day at the Sosa-Mendoza home on the east side of Indianapolis, the weather matched the mood of a family in mourning.
“He was a great father, husband and son and the world turned around and just took him from us,” Sandra Mendoza said through a translator, as tears streamed down her face.
Mendoza was talking about her son, Hector. It had been less than 48 hours since the 30-year-old husband and father of four was shot and killed in his front yard.
Mendoza saw it happen.
“It was his daughter's birthday and everything happened so fast,” said Hector’s wife, Delmis, who described her husband as someone who worked hard to support his family. They had moved here from Honduras two years ago.
A relative told 13News Hector had asked an uninvited guest to leave because he was brandishing a gun. She said the confrontation ended when Hector was shot.
So far, police haven’t made any arrests.
Family members spoke out so Hector would be a face and a name for others to remember, instead of another statistic.
“It’s so sad,” said Nargi Wilson, who lives down the street.
She doesn’t know the family well, but she does know their pain.
“We have had gun violence in our family as well,” said Wilson, who wasn’t upset only by what happened to her neighbors. She’s also concerned by what she said seems to be happening in her community.
"How come people can't have just a fistfight anymore? Everybody wants to shoot somebody,” she said. “They can't come back from that. You beat somebody up, they can come back from that. You shoot them, they're not here anymore."
Hector Sosa-Mendoza was one of seven people who died in shootings across Indianapolis over the weekend. Ten were injured.
By Monday afternoon, two more people had been shot and rushed to area hospitals.
“I don't know what happened that changed people who used to be able to use their words or sometimes they might use their fists, but not guns,” said Deanna Fahrenkamp, who lives next door to one of the victims. “It's out of control.”