INDIANAPOLIS — A 10-year-old boy was shot Monday night as he slept in his bed on the east side of Indianapolis.
Police said the gunfire came from outside his home.
Officers were called to the Amber Woods Apartments near East 34th Street and Mitthoeffer Road just before midnight. But a mother who lives in the building said there was arguing and shots fired in front of her apartment around 6:30 p.m. Monday.
The neighboring mother, who did not want to be shown on camera or identified, believes the same people from the earlier argument were involved in the shooting about five hours later.
"Sounded like a machine gun, something that wasn't going to stop. I heard my daughters screaming and I froze, panicked. Couldn't get to her and all I could think of was going into the room and seeing that my kids had been shot, because she wouldn't stop screaming," the woman said.
The woman, who has lived in the apartment complex for 11 years, said her family was OK.
Tierra Coleman told 13News on Wednesday that her son, Ja'cory Anderson, was the shooting victim. He was grazed by a bullet during the shooting, but has been released from the hospital.
Coleman said her son is doing well physically, but does not want to go back to their apartment, so they're currently staying at a hotel.
Police said multiple shots were fired into the home. It's not known if the occupants were targeted, and there was no immediate word on a possible suspect.
Coleman believes the bullets were intended for an apartment next door to hers.
"It's a callous act for a person to open fire into an apartment building in the middle of the night, let alone you know that that act then resulted in a 10-year-old child who was asleep in his bed shot. Luckily, that looks like that child is going to be okay," said IMPD Capt. Mike Leepper.
The woman who heard the shooting said her children play with the boy who was shot. There's a playground right behind their building. She said the apartment on the other side of hers was shot up two years ago.
"Really time for me to go and my kids to go. I can't have them in this situation and now my daughter is very traumatized from this happening. She slept up under her brother's bed last night," the mother said.
She told 13News she believes four children were inside the apartment that was shot up late Monday night.