INDIANAPOLIS — After Heather Richardson got a call from security before dawn Saturday about gunshots fired at the apartment complex she helps manage, she was on site in five minutes.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police arrived 40 minutes later to investigate. That's when the assistant property manager noticed numerous tenants gathering outside of one unit. She said they were shocked to see her.
"They're looking at me like, 'How did you get here so fast?'" Richardson said. "I know all of their names. I know all of their addresses. It really breaks our heart. This is definitely not what we want to go on at New Bridge, let alone at seven in the morning."
The troubled New Bridge Apartments complex on the near northeast side has been trying to turn things around for tenants, but this recent shooting is a reminder of its violent past.
Latasha Milliner grew up inside the apartments previously known as "Hillside" with her mother, Mary Logan, who has been a resident since 1988. They said hearing gunshots regularly is the norm.
Logan was awake Saturday when she heard and saw the commotion.
"It was about 6 o'clock in the morning when I heard the gunshots," Logan said. "It was behind my apartment, but I didn't hear any police so I didn't think anything about it until I started seeing everybody walking over that way."
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Man and three children shooting in the air
On July 27, 2024, just after sunrise, IMPD officers responded to the 2300 block of Hillside Avenue after multiple 911 callers reported someone was firing shots into an apartment. Officers obtained video footage of a man with three young children, later identified to be between the ages of 10-14, firing a gun on the complex grounds.
In the video, the man shoots a firearm into the air before passing it to the children who each took a turn shooting into the air.
They then returned to their apartment, where officers said two adults and four juveniles were later taken into custody.
The man was arrested and charged with three counts of dangerous control of a firearm by providing a firearm to a child, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
Property manager Shelly Corken said she was shocked that the man identified by police was involved in this. She has filed eviction notices through lawyers to be served to him in jail.
"And then the apartment that it happened in was actually his girlfriend's," Corken said. "We gave her two options. One, to move out by the fifth or we would have to file an eviction because we have a zero tolerance policy here. I mean the amount of evictions we've had just since I started in the middle of March has been astronomical."
Since March when Corken took over as property manager, she has filed 40 eviction notices for the 185-unit complex, and Corken said those aren't just for being late on rent. Anybody who violates the complex's safety policy is evicted.
Corken also showed up to the scene Saturday as the man was arrested.
"The first thing out of his mouth was, 'I'm sorry, 'Ms. Shelly,'" Corken said. "I mean I grew up in Carmel. My kids were raised in Carmel. I taught them how to shoot firearms at the age of 10, but we did it in a gun range, not in a residential area. We were there the whole time until I saw that the baby was OK."
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Richardson started working at the complex in January, and since Corken's arrival the two have been strategically trying to engage tenants to curb the violence in the apartment complex.
New Bridge Apartments has been connected to eight homicides since 2019.
The first thing Corken did when she took over the property was fire the security team that was there and hire a new team who she said has received good feedback from tenants.
"I get reports every single night of people that come onto the property, if they've trespassed. They have access to our cameras so even when they're not on site, it's being monitored 24 hours a day," Corken said. "I'm not playing, you give me any kind of problems and you're gone."
Their strategy as a management team includes letting tenants know that they care.
"It was like national hamburger day so we had an event where they could come and get hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and a drink," Corken said. "And meet IMPD and our security. Once a month we do a community meeting. We're currently doing a back-to-school drive with supplies for the kids. We have a bounce house and we're going to be grilling. We even do drawings to get off of your rent."
Milliner said their efforts haven't been what her family has been used to from management.
"It used to be you couldn't do anything with the kids," Milliner said. "They tore down the basketball courts. They put up these green poles and called them monkey bars. The family-oriented people aren't here anymore."
Logan said she appreciates Corken's efforts in trying to engage neighbors again.
"I think she's really been trying to do something you know," Logan said. "All the original families are now gone and it is what it is now."
Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formally Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.
