More than half of the homicides in Johnson County within the last year were allegedly committed by teenagers and young adults in their early twenties.
Public safety officials have taken note of the seeming rise of violence among younger generations in the county. While it is a growing cause for concern, police say it is not yet out of control and they hope to be proactive in combating violent crime in general and violence among youth.
Of the eight homicide incidents reported in Johnson County, including the Greenwood Park Mall shooting, between 2022 and now, five have alleged perpetrators in their late teens or early twenties.
A rise in violence
Greenwood in particular saw an abnormal amount in homicides in 2022 and into the beginning of this year. Most of those homicides reported in the city were committed by younger individuals between the ages of 18 and 25. The Greenwood Police Department reported six homicides in 2022, three of which were victims in the Greenwood Park Mall shooting. There has been one homicide in the city this year so far.
The mall gunman was 20 years old, and also had a juvenile record. Two days after the mall shooting, a man was allegedly shot and killed by a group of juveniles at Westminster Apartments in Greenwood. A month later in August, 16-year-old Temario Stokes was shot and killed at his bus stop in Greenwood. Tyrique Radford El, 18, is charged with his murder.
In March this year, Marco Antonio Gonzalez, 25, was charged with murder after police say he shot and killed Timothy Sannito, 52, in the parking lot of Ale Emporium.
Though not ruled a homicide, a home invasion in Greenwood in May this year turned deadly. The incident resulted in Jerimiah Sirr Martin, 20, being shot by a juvenile in a home following an alleged drug deal gone wrong. GPD has investigated the case as a justifiable homicide, however, this is another incident involving people in their teens and early 20s.
Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison couldn’t pinpoint one reason why there seems to be more young people resorting to violence. He said a lack of conflict resolution is a big shift he’s noticed.
“I don’t have the answers as to why that is, but we are seeing more and more — it’s across the country,” Ison said. “You’re seeing more and more, I call them trigger-pullers: young people resorting to handgun or gun violence.”
Police often deal with juveniles or young people committing crimes such as theft, vandalism or fighting, Ison said. But there is a more recent shift in young people’s general behavior, and willingness to commit higher-level crimes, such as evading police.
“We were constantly dealing with kids committing [crimes] whether it be theft or fighting, right, vandalism. I don’t think any of that’s changed,” he said. “What is changing is the amount of young people who flee and fight police. That has gotten a lot worse.”
Outside of Greenwood, an attempted murder and a homicide in other areas of the county within the last year also involved young people. In August last year, Nicholas Saunders, who was 19 at time, was charged with attempted murder after he allegedly shot a man in Morgantown. In Edinburgh earlier this year, 14-year-old Jonathon Elliott was shot and killed while playing video games at a house. Pedro Castillo-Salmeron, 20, was arrested and charged with reckless homicide.
Johnson County Sheriff Duane Burgess also said he is keeping an eye on the growing number of young people resorting to violence. He thinks there’s a growing sentiment among younger generations that they are invincible, he said.
“It doesn’t seem like it bothers some of these young people to gravitate to using a weapon, or whatever it may be, to take somebody’s life,” Burgess said. “That is a problem. And it’s filtered down here. We’re trying to keep a majority of it away.”
Burgess and Ison both have described the violent incidents last year as anomalies in Johnson County, but they are concerned about the trend growing. Burgess is focused on keeping the growing violence in Indianapolis out of Johnson County. Indianapolis reported 210 criminal homicides last year, which was a decrease from previous years.
Burgess does not know exactly how to keep Indianapolis crime out, but he wants to do everything he can to prevent more crime crossing the county line, he said. He’s focused on adding more patrols for his officers and sending a message that there are harsh consequences for committing violent crimes in Johnson County.
“The first part is being proactive, and we’re working to do that. We see the number of homicides that are occurring in Marion County,” Burgess said. “Short of building a wall, I don’t know how we’re gonna keep them all away.”
Juvenile felonies tick up
The Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center has seen slight increases year over year in juveniles coming in on weapons charges, said Kristi Bruther, juvenile detention director. There has also been an increase in felony charges.
In 2021, 33 felony charges were filed against juveniles in detention: 17 were offenses against a person and two were weapons charges. In 2022, 44 felony charges were filed: 19 offenses against a person and two weapons charges. Between January and July this year, 38 felonies have been filed: 16 offenses against a person and two weapons charges.
Johnson County’s juvenile detention center is one of 18 in the state, so the center serves many juveniles from outside the county. In 2022, the center had 1,067 referrals, and 736 referrals between January and July this year.
Primary referrals to juvenile detention are still typically for runaways, truancy and curfew violations, Bruther said. The next most common offense recently is crimes against another person.
“One indicator we use to determine a public safety change or increase in offenses is to look at the number of felonies filed. And so that number has increased,” Bruther said. “And so I think that’s where the changing behaviors that law enforcement are seeing is that kids are committing more felonies based on the data that we have.”
On the juvenile community corrections side, officials in the last few years have shifted programs to help focus on children’s mental health, said Lori Meyers, program director at Johnson County Community Corrections. They have started collecting data on adverse childhood experiences, such as traumatic events youth in the juvenile center have experienced throughout childhood. That can include abuse or neglect, Meyers said.
“I would say yes, we are seeing more concern with mental health needs and risks that are driving behaviors, but at the core of the behavior is really mental health or traumatic events,” Meyers said.
Juvenile justice staff and personnel are following a model called Trust Based Relational Intervention, or TBRI. With this model they look at youth behavior early, teaching different kinds of coping mechanisms, and helping how to sense when their body is about to go into a fight or flight or freeze response.
“When these kids leave our care, we need them to not be as threat responsive,” Meyers said “Anything that happens to them as a threat, they make it bigger than they have the capacity to manage with. That’s why they feel they may need to use, you know, a weapon or get in more fights.”
Meyers said there is a shift in behaviors among juveniles who come to the center in detention on community corrections. Officials in juvenile programs are using all their resources to ensure youth don’t leave these programs to go on to commit crimes in early adulthood.
“It’s all tailored and focused on making sure that as few youth that we work with end up in the adult system as possible,” she said. “I will say that I really feel like TBRI, and the changes that we’ve made in the last few years, have probably curbed that.”
The school perspective
Clark-Pleasant Community schools is the second-largest school district in Johnson County and it’s one of two with its own police department.
A few fights at Whiteland Community High School last school year caught public attention after parents posted about the incidents on social media. That included an incident where a male student was shoved and tackled by school police officers following a fight last fall. Parents on social media and at school board meetings have said they are concerned with what appears to be an increase in students getting into fights.
Earlier this month, an elementary student at Break-O-Day Elementary was detained after it was discovered he brought a handgun on the bus to school. However, officials said the student didn’t make threats with the gun.
Clark-Pleasant Police Chief Chad Pryce said it seems like more violent behaviors have manifested among youth. However, the department has not tracked an abnormal increase in responses to fights or other concerning violent acts.
“It definitely appears that there’s a slight increase in fights. I don’t know that they’re more violent. I don’t know that there’s any one driving force behind any of it,” Pryce said. “I can’t say that it’s exponentially worse than what has been the last couple years but probably slightly more.”
Some of the recent suspects in violent incidents, including Radford El, Gonzalez and the mall gunman, all were former students at Clark-Pleasant schools. That connection is probably more a coincidence than anything, given the size of the school district and the population it covers, Pryce said.
“If a couple of people make really bad decisions, I don’t think it necessarily takes the entire population,” Pryce said. “I don’t know that I have necessarily a growing concern that we’re breeding those things here.”
As an educator, Clark-Pleasant Superintendent Tim Edsell is concerned about the overall trend of growing youth violence. He wants the school district to be involved in curbing that as best they can, he said.
“The vast majority of kids are going to make good decisions, are going to want to work well and get along with each other,” Edsell said. “It’s the ones that have tough situations … that we’ve got to be able to figure out how can we help them so they don’t feel like they need to go down the path of violent behavior.”
Community policing
Building relationships with students is a priority for Clark-Pleasant police, Pryce said. A goal of those relationships is to be proactive to instill values in youth from the start to keep them from making poor decisions in the future.
“When conflicts do happen, it’s not one of those things where … it’s the pipeline to the juvenile justice system. It’s not that at all.” Pryce said. “We try to instill education and we try to instill conflict resolution. We try to talk through those things and help the students see the big picture and see that there’s life outside of high school.”
Clark-Pleasant has seven full-time officers and they maintain a presence regularly at every school in the district.
“I always say that what we do is the epitome of what community policing is,” Pryce said. “I think that is the root of this. And I think just showing people that you care enough to support them is where those values can start.”
Police in general are trying to get more involved with the community and youth, Ison said. Programs like National Night Out help officers engage more with youth to build a bond with them.
“It’s centered around children and getting the kids at a younger age comfortable with being around and talking to police officers and knowing that, you know, they’re there to for them and there to help them,” Ison said.
The sheriff’s office also is getting more involved with youth in its own programs, Burgess said. They have a program where youth come to the office and are paired with deputies as mentors, who can help them with school work or anything they need.
“I hear a lot of good (from) my guys stopping and talking to these kids when they do stuff; we want them to have somebody that they can go to,” Burgess said.
Ison also said preventing youth violence and crime starts at home with parents. Parents should be involved with their children and get them involved in activities. Many of the youth or young adults arrested for serious crimes typically had rough personal lives, he said.
“The saying is ‘idle hands do the devil’s work.’ So, you know, make sure they’re playing basketball or golf or something that interests them and be interested in what they’re interested in,” Ison said.
