WEBVTT 00:00:00.674 --> 00:00:13.085 - Good afternoon. I am Mayor Carrie Thompson and I have with me Chief DeKoff and Ben from IU who will 00:00:13.085 --> 00:00:25.620 - both be speaking this afternoon. We'll give you a briefing on the incidents and what has happened in 00:00:25.620 --> 00:00:28.350 - status at this point. 00:00:28.802 --> 00:00:38.403 - And then Chief DeKoff and I will take questions at the end of the briefing. It is, of course, an incredibly 00:00:38.403 --> 00:00:47.560 - sad day any time there's violence in our community, and any time, especially, there are victims of gun 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:56.805 - violence. We condemn gun violence, unequivocally, in any form. And my thoughts are with those that were 00:00:56.805 --> 00:00:58.494 - injured last night 00:00:59.586 --> 00:01:08.341 - Little Five is a time when we have lots of visitors in Bloomington, including alumni, as we saw from 00:01:08.341 --> 00:01:17.530 - the national championship. We have many visitors in Bloomington for many significant events and protocols 00:01:17.530 --> 00:01:27.326 - in place to try to support crowds and keep them safe. That worked incredibly well for the national championship. 00:01:29.186 --> 00:01:37.506 - And unfortunately, people brought guns to the party last night. Our police were present throughout the 00:01:37.506 --> 00:01:45.908 - weekend on Kirkwood and throughout the city, assisting with proud management and safety. I'm incredibly 00:01:45.908 --> 00:01:53.986 - proud, not only of the cooperation between Chief DeKoff's Bloomington Police Department, Ben Hunter 00:01:53.986 --> 00:01:58.590 - and the IU Police and the Indiana State Police, but also 00:01:58.850 --> 00:02:08.401 - that even with such a violent incident in our community, our cooperative police response remained nonviolent. 00:02:08.401 --> 00:02:17.258 - After every large gathering or violent incident, the city does a review. We will be doing that in the 00:02:17.258 --> 00:02:26.115 - coming days again, and we're committed to update policies and procedures as needed to increase safety 00:02:26.115 --> 00:02:27.678 - at public events. 00:02:29.026 --> 00:02:39.771 - It has been suggested that we forbid guns from public gatherings in the future in Bloomington. Unfortunately, 00:02:39.771 --> 00:02:50.125 - Indiana gun laws prohibit such action. And if the gun laws remain as they are, anyone can hope and carry. 00:02:50.125 --> 00:02:58.526 - We encourage people not to bring guns to gatherings, and we encourage you to speak up 00:02:58.914 --> 00:03:08.945 - to those who can change our gun laws. When violence happens in our community, our entire community is 00:03:08.945 --> 00:03:18.779 - impacted. Whether you're a resident, a visitor, an alum, or a first responder, this incident may be 00:03:18.779 --> 00:03:28.318 - impacting you. I'm grateful to Centerstone, who is offering coordinated crisis response services 00:03:28.802 --> 00:03:36.207 - both short-term and long-term to any of those who may be impacted by the shooting last night. I'm going 00:03:36.207 --> 00:03:43.613 - to turn things over to Chief DeKoff now. Thank you, Mayor. My name is Mike DeKoff. I'm the Police Chief 00:03:43.613 --> 00:03:51.303 - for the City of Bloomington. Last night at approximately 12.25 a.m., Bloomington Police Department officers 00:03:51.303 --> 00:03:57.854 - were stationed in the 400 block of East Kirkwood monitoring a large crowd that had gathered 00:03:59.106 --> 00:04:06.412 - heard what they believed to be multiple gunshots and the crowd began scattering. Officers immediately 00:04:06.412 --> 00:04:13.718 - converged on the area and located multiple wounded individuals. It was originally believed that up to 00:04:13.718 --> 00:04:20.881 - nine people had been injured as a result of gunfire, but now we believe that there were five people 00:04:20.881 --> 00:04:27.614 - that were actually injured by gunfire and fragments from bullets. The other people we believe 00:04:36.482 --> 00:04:45.165 - The individuals currently known to have suffered injuries were a 20-year-old female, an 18-year-old 00:04:45.165 --> 00:04:54.543 - female, a 22-year-old female, a 17-year-old female, and a 21-year-old female. All were treated and released 00:04:54.543 --> 00:05:03.747 - except one who had been admitted as a stable condition. At this time, we are reviewing cell phone footage 00:05:03.747 --> 00:05:05.310 - and video footage 00:05:06.050 --> 00:05:12.936 - businesses, it is believed that a fight broke out between two females near the front of the Five Guys 00:05:12.936 --> 00:05:19.822 - restaurant on Kirkwood. During the fight, multiple individuals can be seen drawing handguns and it is 00:05:19.822 --> 00:05:26.776 - believed that two separate individuals fired their weapons. At that point, everyone began running from 00:05:26.776 --> 00:05:34.270 - the scene and officers rushed to the area to begin to look for victims. This investigation remains ongoing and 00:05:37.602 --> 00:05:48.835 - the incident is encouraged to call our department and contact Detective Chris Scott at 812-339-4477. 00:05:48.835 --> 00:06:00.735 - I want to reiterate what the mayor said about cooperation amongst law enforcement agencies. We had several 00:06:00.735 --> 00:06:05.406 - officers stationed in the area to monitor 00:06:06.018 --> 00:06:13.947 - The event was going very peaceful until the shots broke out. When we needed assistance, the Indiana 00:06:13.947 --> 00:06:21.956 - University Police and the Indiana State Police were there to assist us. And so we do appreciate that 00:06:21.956 --> 00:06:30.202 - help. But I want to reiterate, this was not just random gunfire. It was a fight between two people that 00:06:30.202 --> 00:06:33.374 - had broke out and the shots were fired. 00:06:34.562 --> 00:06:42.332 - We did have people quickly in the area. We were able to get ambulances in the area very quickly to tend 00:06:42.332 --> 00:06:49.803 - to those who had been hit. And at this time, we will continue to investigate this and update on the 00:06:49.803 --> 00:06:57.499 - status of the young woman who is still in the hospital and update the investigative leads that we have 00:06:57.499 --> 00:07:02.654 - as we move forward. Let's turn it over to Superintendent Ben Hunter. 00:07:05.122 --> 00:07:10.600 - Thanks, Chief. Good afternoon. My name is Pedro Hunter. I'm the Associate Vice President and Superintendent 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:15.723 - for the IU Police Department. I want to thank the Mayor and the Chief for inviting us here today. We 00:07:15.723 --> 00:07:20.491 - joined the IU community and the city of Bloomington in condemning this act of violence. There 00:07:20.491 --> 00:07:25.817 - was unprecedented cooperation. And I know that Chief DeKoff and I are on the scene. And I want to extend 00:07:25.817 --> 00:07:30.890 - my thanks to the Indiana State Police, the Sheriff's Department, and other law enforcement agencies 00:07:30.890 --> 00:07:34.846 - that were there. The IU Police Department and Indiana University stands ready 00:07:35.906 --> 00:07:41.797 - City of Bloomington and any resource that we have and availability to assist them and help them in this 00:07:41.797 --> 00:07:47.801 - investigation. I would encourage our students or anyone to reach out to the Bloomington Police Department 00:07:47.801 --> 00:07:53.466 - if they have video or tips to make sure that Bloomington Police Department gets that information. I 00:07:53.466 --> 00:07:59.187 - want to be clear that the victims were not IU students in this incident. We have to confirm that and 00:07:59.187 --> 00:08:02.302 - then we'll continue to work with BPD as they move this 00:08:07.682 --> 00:08:26.942 - Chief DeKoff and I are happy to take any questions. They are victims. The two females 00:08:44.418 --> 00:08:53.726 - I'm not sure exactly who all has been talked to. I know we have talked to a lot of people, but we continue 00:08:53.726 --> 00:09:03.034 - to do interviews with people that were in the scene and involved in this. We're not sure what the shooters 00:09:03.034 --> 00:09:08.862 - were aiming at, but the people who were injured we do not believe. 00:09:13.794 --> 00:09:22.849 - At the gas station, we're not sure what his involvement is. There was a male that had injuries. We're 00:09:22.849 --> 00:09:32.171 - not sure where those came from yet. We're continuing that investigation. The shooters were male. I would 00:09:32.171 --> 00:09:37.054 - estimate it was probably two to three thousand people. 00:09:44.674 --> 00:09:50.929 - Yes, people were just milling about, hanging around. There was, I mean, you could hear music from the 00:09:50.929 --> 00:09:57.122 - bars because some of the doors and windows were open, so you could hear that. But it was just really 00:09:57.122 --> 00:10:03.376 - a bunch of people just kind of hanging out, walking around, talking to people. We had a lot of people 00:10:03.376 --> 00:10:09.570 - coming up to the officers, talking to them. So it was really just kind of a, it wasn't unruly at the 00:10:09.570 --> 00:10:14.046 - time. When the gunshots rang out, obviously people fled, and that's when 00:10:18.498 --> 00:10:34.349 - I was there. We were probably a half a block away from it. Multiple officers. The crowd was much larger 00:10:34.349 --> 00:10:46.238 - last night than it was on Friday night and so it would have become a resource 00:10:47.362 --> 00:10:53.700 - our belief was if we tried to move the crowd that that problem would have caused more problems. There 00:10:53.700 --> 00:11:00.286 - wasn't really any reason for us to move the crowd because everybody was pretty jovial and happy until the 00:11:18.242 --> 00:11:27.680 - So Flock, remember, takes pictures of license plates. And so we don't know that they were in vehicles. 00:11:27.680 --> 00:11:37.393 - No, we have no vehicle descriptions. Well, there were no cars down there. We had roads blocked to vehicle 00:11:37.393 --> 00:11:45.182 - traffic. We do have video cameras, and we are reviewing that footage, and we're also 00:11:47.714 --> 00:11:56.832 - surrounding businesses as well. I don't believe that there were there were anyone else that like fell 00:11:56.832 --> 00:12:05.860 - and scraped that went to the hospital. I think the people that went to the hospital were all injured 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:14.977 - from either bullet fragments or actually being shot. We had several individuals come up to us talking 00:12:14.977 --> 00:12:16.318 - about injuries 00:12:32.450 --> 00:12:40.430 - So we had to, we had to secure the crime scene. So it started small and we just kept pushing people 00:12:40.430 --> 00:12:48.649 - back to expand the crime scene because obviously we're looking for weapons, shell casings, things like 00:12:48.649 --> 00:12:56.948 - that. And so we just kept pushing the crowdfaker back farther and farther and eventually they just stay 00:12:56.948 --> 00:12:59.262 - all around. We did find some 00:13:04.258 --> 00:13:32.254 - You know, we welcome visitors all the time to Bloomington and naturally 00:13:32.674 --> 00:13:40.094 - Many of our students are also from outside of Bloomington, so it hasn't been confirmed that either the 00:13:40.094 --> 00:13:47.297 - shooters or the victims were not actively living in Bloomington. As the mayor of this city, it's my 00:13:47.297 --> 00:13:54.573 - job to put in place policies and procedures that keep people safe, and we're committed to doing that 00:13:54.573 --> 00:13:56.446 - whether you're a resident 00:14:05.346 --> 00:14:12.795 - The brand name flock is being discontinued from use in the city. We are looking at alternatives to that 00:14:12.795 --> 00:14:19.742 - technology to ensure that we can still retain a level of safety and accountability that we have. 00:14:38.274 --> 00:14:45.504 - reviewing everything that did happen and every protocol that is within our power to ensure safety. Again, 00:14:45.504 --> 00:14:52.392 - we want people to feel welcome to come to Bloomington. We want them to be able to celebrate and have 00:14:52.392 --> 00:14:59.690 - fun here and the fact of the matter is our gun laws enable anyone to open carry on our streets and there's 00:14:59.690 --> 00:15:06.578 - nothing we can do about that. We'll be reviewing everything that happened, anything that we possibly 00:15:06.578 --> 00:15:07.806 - can do to improve 00:15:08.002 --> 00:15:21.539 - safety we will be doing we're actually only taking questions from the press right now thank you I just 00:15:21.539 --> 00:15:34.814 - want to add following up on the preparation this was my 39th little 500 we prepare extensively every 00:15:38.786 --> 00:15:45.165 - thinking about this. We've already had conversations this morning about starting the planning earlier 00:15:45.165 --> 00:15:51.482 - because of this event. Little 500 brings people from all over the country, alumni come from all over 00:15:51.482 --> 00:15:57.673 - the country to come back to Bloomington. I had a lot of people come up to me on the street saying, 00:15:57.673 --> 00:16:03.989 - you know, I graduated here 20 years ago and, you know, so people come back to Bloomington for Little 00:16:03.989 --> 00:16:06.366 - 500. So what we need to do is we need 00:16:07.234 --> 00:16:15.833 - make sure that we get the message out that guns aren't welcome, violence isn't welcome, but coming and 00:16:15.833 --> 00:16:24.432 - having a good time is. And so that's the message that we are going to do. We have our police presence. 00:16:24.432 --> 00:16:32.446 - Most of the time, everybody was very jovial, having a good time. It's when guns get introduced, 00:16:36.610 --> 00:16:43.632 - So we're going to continue to stress that that type of behavior will be dealt with. And that's not what 00:16:43.632 --> 00:16:50.654 - we expect from people that come and want to celebrate Little 500. My question comes from the guys. When 00:16:50.654 --> 00:16:57.406 - you were looking at video that you've been able to see so far, how many guns do you see? Were there 00:16:57.406 --> 00:17:04.158 - multiple people with guns? It's still under investigation, and so I'm not going to talk about that. 00:17:12.802 --> 00:17:20.972 - And so we're looking at all video to try to determine who did what. And so I think it would be presumptuous 00:17:20.972 --> 00:17:29.143 - of me to say that a certain number of people were involved when we're still looking at all of the evidence. 00:17:29.143 --> 00:17:35.422 - Would you be making the names of victims? No. Our policy is we don't name victims. 00:18:13.026 --> 00:18:20.917 - answer that part of what I will say is as a past president of the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police 00:18:20.917 --> 00:18:28.585 - and in cooperation with the former superintendent of the Indiana State Police, Doug Carter, we lobbied 00:18:28.585 --> 00:18:36.104 - hard at the Indiana legislature against what they passed because we do not believe that everybody is 00:18:36.104 --> 00:18:42.878 - a person that should be carrying a gun. So from a law enforcement standpoint, we have done 00:18:44.514 --> 00:18:50.658 - that we can to lobby the legislature to change the gun laws and not pass the ones that they did. And 00:18:50.658 --> 00:18:55.038 - I'll let the mayor comment on lawsuits. We have not discussed lawsuits. 00:19:14.274 --> 00:19:21.823 - If someone injured from a bullet fragment, what happens if a bullet hits concrete or a hard surface? 00:19:21.823 --> 00:19:29.446 - It's lead, so it will fragment. And so the velocity that a bullet comes out of a gun is very fast. So 00:19:29.446 --> 00:19:37.144 - when it fragments, it still has enough force to cause injury. So they would have, one injury I saw was 00:19:37.144 --> 00:19:43.646 - a woman had, it was like a deep cut on the back of her leg. So it would be those types 00:19:45.026 --> 00:19:55.927 - The young woman that actually had a gunshot wound, it was, I believe, in her abdomen and it either went 00:19:55.927 --> 00:20:06.723 - in through an armpit area and exited or went in through the abdomen and exited through the armpit. I'm 00:20:06.723 --> 00:20:14.270 - not quite sure which way it was, but that was the extent of the injury. 00:20:14.434 --> 00:20:23.714 - It's still considered a gunshot wound, but it was a fragment from a bullet. I don't know how many shell 00:20:23.714 --> 00:20:33.352 - casings. It's not anything we can look at and say, okay, this came from two guns. So obviously the evidence 00:20:33.352 --> 00:20:42.454 - will be analyzed and we will try to determine what kind of firearm it was. That's what witnesses have 00:20:42.454 --> 00:20:43.614 - to indicate. 00:20:59.938 --> 00:21:06.218 - Okay, thank you so much for your time and I really appreciate the press being here to be able to get 00:21:06.218 --> 00:21:08.830 - the word out to our residents. Thank you.