Seven children and teenagers wounded in mass shooting in Indianapolis

The incident marked the third weekend in a row of mass shootings in the city

Police rushed to the scene of a mass shooting at the Circle Center Mall in Indianapolis on Saturday 30 March (WTHR)

A shooting at a mall in Indianapolis on Saturday night left seven children and teenagers wounded.

Gunshots were fired at around 11.30pm at the Circle Center Mall, in the downtown area, with police officers hearing them and responding to the scene.

When they arrived, they found six young people with gunshot wounds, with ages ranging from 12 to 17-years-old.

All were taken to nearby hospitals, with a seventh victim arriving separately, and all were in a stable condition as of Sunday morning.

Tanya Terry, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s deputy chief of operations, told reporters at the scene that officers noticed groups of teenagers in the area just before the incident.

She said that parents should know where their children are after 10pm, adding that it was “extremely concerning” that more young people had fallen victim to gun violence.

“Once again, we have a situation in which young people are resolving conflict with firearms, and it has to stop,” Ms Terry said.

“Conflict should not lead to somebody pulling out a gun and trying to resolve it. The consequences are eternal.”

The police department told The Independent on Monday that no arrests had yet been made and that its officers were still conducting their investigations.

WTHR reported that this was the third weekend in a row that at least six people have been injured in a shooting in Indianapolis.

In a statement released on X, the city’s mayor Joe Hogsett said he was “heartbroken” for those involved.

“Let me be clear: a 12-year-old child has no business being out late at night anywhere without parental or adult supervision,” Mayor Hogsett said. “As important, there is no reason why a young person at any age should be in possession of a gun.

“But no level of law enforcement or community programming can keep guns out of the hands of every young person in our city.”

The mayor said the city was working to build on a $150m violence reduction strategy, which includes hiring as Chief Violence Prevention Office, who will focus “exclusively” on young people.