1 arrested after shots fired incident leads to SWAT standoff in northeast Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS — A man was arrested on Saturday after a shots fired incident reportedly involving children led to a SWAT standoff on the near northeast side of Indianapolis.

According to a social media post from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, 37-year-old Jeffery Ware was arrested on preliminary charges of criminal recklessness, dangerous control of a firearm, child endangerment, possession of marijuana and possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.

Around 7 a.m. on Saturday, north district officers from IMPD responded to the 2300 block of Hillside Avenue after multiple 911 callers said there were shots fired in an apartment complex. When officers arrived, witnesses reportedly told them that an adult man, later identified as Ware, and three younger individuals fired a gun in the parking lot before running back inside an apartment at the complex.

According to the post, officers obtained video footage of the incident, which reportedly showed the man shoot the gun in the air. The man then reportedly passed it to three other individuals, who were described as IMPD as “very young looking,” who also then fired the gun into the air.

IMPD then surrounded the apartment that the group reportedly ran into. The post said that officers made “loud announcements” for anyone inside to exit. Two adults and four children reportedly left the apartment and were taken into custody. One man remained inside and “refused to exit.”

After the man, later identified as Ware, refused the leave the apartment, the department’s Special Weapons and Tactics team responded to the scene. Ware was later taken into custody, where police said it was “immediately apparent that Ware was the adult in the video footage shooting the gun into the air.”

After a search of the apartment, as well as Ware’s vehicle, IMPD officers reportedly found two handguns, multiple fired shell casings and around 80 grams of marijuana.

Three of the children detained matched the clothing and the physical descriptions of the individuals also seen in the video firing the gun in the air. The post read that the children, who were between the ages of 10 and 14, were reportedly encouraged by Ware to shoot his gun.

“The alleged behavior is a very disturbing and disappointing,” IMPD Commander Matthew Thomas said in the post. “It is completely unacceptable that any adult would think it is appropriate, not only for himself to recklessly shoot a gun in a busy apartment complex, but to also encourage children to do the same. We as a department are outraged by this, and the community should also be outraged. We have to do better. Our children deserve better.”

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