Surveillance cameras at a Marathon gas station on Indianapolis's northeast side captured the final moments of 28-year-old Shantell Marie Laster, who was shot and killed while sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car late Tuesday night. Police say the attack, which happened at East 38th Street and North Oxford Avenue, appears to have been targeted rather than random.
According to WISH-TV, the footage shows a white Chevrolet Malibu with Laster in the passenger seat pulling up to a pump at around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday. Moments later, a dark-colored truck pulled in behind the Malibu, and two people got out. One of them walked to the front of the Malibu and opened fire while Laster was still inside the car, the station reported.
The gunfire shredded the scene, flattening both of the Malibu's front tires and shattering the driver's-side window, per the same report. Investigators later recovered shell casings scattered across the gas station lot, according to WISH-TV's reporting.
Police Response and Early Investigation
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was called just after 11:45 p.m. Tuesday to a report of a person shot at the intersection, as reported by WRTV. Arriving officers found an adult female inside a vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds. She was rushed to a hospital, where she died shortly after arrival, WRTV reported. A separate account from Fox 59 reporter Brandon Kennedy similarly described officers locating a woman with a gunshot wound who was taken to the hospital in critical condition before an IMPD incident report confirmed she had died from her injuries.
The Marion County Coroner's Office identified the victim as Shantell Marie Laster, 28, WRTV reported. IMPD is investigating the case as a homicide, according to the incident report cited by Fox 59.
Investigators Call It a Targeted Attack
Detectives believe the shooting was a targeted attack and said there is no ongoing threat to the public, per WRTV's reporting. As of the most recent reporting, police had not announced any arrests, WISH-TV noted. No information about a possible motive or the relationship between Laster and the people in the truck has been released.
Anyone with information has been asked to contact IMPD Detective Christopher Williams at 317-327-3475, according to WISH-TV. Tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS (8477), per Fox 59's reporting.
A Broader Shift in Indianapolis Shooting Numbers
The killing comes as Indianapolis has otherwise seen a notable drop in gun violence this year. IMPD has reported 185 non-fatal shootings involving 214 victims so far in 2026, compared with 289 incidents and 345 victims over the same stretch of 2025, according to WIBC. That amounts to a 38% year-over-year decline, part of what WIBC describes as a five-year downward trend in non-fatal shootings dating back to 2022. The department also reported a 40% clearance rate for non-fatal shootings, well above the roughly 25% national average cited in the same report. Those figures track non-fatal shootings specifically and don't speak to trends in fatal cases like the one that killed Laster.
The shooting at the Marathon station was one of two fatal incidents reported in Indianapolis within days of each other. On Oct. 19, a 33-year-old mother and her 9-year-old son were killed in what WTHR described as an apparent murder-suicide near 46th Street and Eagle Creek Parkway, a separate case unrelated to the gas station shooting.
