One person was killed and five others were wounded in a shooting early Monday morning at a Waffle House in Indianapolis, police said.
The shooting did not appear to be a random act of violence but broke out when two groups of people in the restaurant’s parking lot got into a verbal altercation that turned deadly, the Indy Star reported.
According to the newspaper, the deadly incident began around 12:30 a.m. at a Waffle House just a few blocks from Indianapolis International Airport in the southwest portion of the city.
Police said they believed an argument escalated into at least one person opening fire outside the restaurant.
Three men and one woman were transported to a local hospital in stable condition.
A man who was in critical condition was taken to a hospital either by himself or by someone else, according to the Star.
A woman who was transported for emergency medical care in critical condition died at a hospital.
No one had been arrested as of early Monday afternoon.
In a statement obtained by WXIN-TV, an officer with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said one gun was recovered from the scene of the shooting. Another was found in a car at an area hospital.
“What preliminary [information] we have is this was a disturbance which turned into a fight between two groups of people,” IMPD Capt. Don Weilhammer said.
“At least one handgun was recovered on the scene of the Waffle House. Another gun was recovered from the car at Methodist Hospital,” he said.
The officer said multiple people were at the scene and saw what happened, but some of them fled and were not cooperating as witnesses.
Weilhammer said he hoped they would change their minds.
“We have had numerous people that stuck around and are acting as witnesses,” he said. “But we also believe there were several that were either at the Speedway gas station behind us or at the Waffle House that left the scene prior to our arrival.”
“We’re hoping they’ll be willing to come forward and give us information,” Weilhammer said.
The captain also pleaded with people in his community to find better ways to settle their differences than to resort to shooting one another.
“One thing that I would stress, and we stress this quite often, but it still has not changed: If you have a conflict, use conflict resolution,” Weilhammer said.
“Most notably, talk about it. If you can’t work things out without resorting to violence, then turn and walk away. Somebody’s life, unfortunately, was lost tonight over this conflict between these two groups. And that’s unnecessary,” he said.
In a statement, the Waffle House told WXIN it was working with the police.
“We are cooperating fully with the ongoing law enforcement investigation into this incident,” the company said.
Waffle House corporate referred any further inquiries into the incident to police.
