BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Police had not taken any suspects into custody by 1 p.m. Monday after a shooting on Kirkwood Avenue early Sunday morning wounded at least nine people in the heart of downtown Bloomington.
At a Monday afternoon news conference, Bloomington police said all of the wounded were in stable condition and all but one had been released from the hospital. One victim suffered a bullet wound, four others were hurt by bullet fragments and the rest were cut or scraped as they ran from the area. Chief Mike Diekhoff said investigators had reviewed cell phone and video footage that showed multiple people drawing handguns and two males firing after what police believe began as a fight between two females near Five Guys.
The shooting unfolded at about 12:25 a.m. Sunday, when officers stationed on Kirkwood Avenue heard what they believed were multiple gunshots in the 400 block of East Kirkwood Avenue. A large crowd in the street scattered, and officers later found shell casings at the scene. Six injured people were taken to local hospitals by ambulance, one was driven away in a police squad car and two others arrived by personal vehicle.
The city later said five people were wounded by gunfire or fragments and four others were injured while fleeing. Indiana University police, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and Indiana State Police assisted at the scene, where remotely piloted aerial vehicles and a state police helicopter were used to document and support the investigation. An IU Notify Alert said police responded to shots fired on Kirkwood Avenue west of Dunn Street, while another notice stressed that no shots were fired on the IU campus.
The case remains open, and the lack of arrests by Monday afternoon leaves investigators still working to identify the two suspected shooters, both believed to be male. The city said it does not know who was involved, where they are from or what affiliations they may have had with Bloomington. In a roughly three-minute video posted Monday on the City of Bloomington Instagram, Mayor Kerry Thomson condemned racism and said the city was working around the clock, but police have not released official descriptions of the suspects or said when they may be named.