A night out between friends at an Indianapolis bar ended with one man shot in the face and abdomen, and now the other faces attempted murder charges. Police arrested 's role in a shooting that left a man he reportedly knew fighting for his life outside the business on the city's east side.
According to court documents cited by Fox 59, police responded around 2:24 a.m. on Sept. 26 to a shooting in the 6500 block of East 10th Street. Officers arriving on scene applied a tourniquet to the victim's right leg and found he had also suffered a gunshot wound to his face near his right eye and above his cheek, per the outlet's report.
The injuries described in the court documents were severe. A bullet struck the victim's right cheek and broke his jawbone, while two more bullets struck his abdomen and exited through his back; he also suffered wounds to his groin and leg, according to the documents. The victim was taken to Methodist Hospital and later underwent a second surgery, and he was sedated in the ICU, though he reportedly avoided injuries to vital organs.
Security Footage and a Bartender's Account
Security guards at the bar told detectives they heard between four and five shots and responded by locking the front door to secure customers inside, while one guard retrieved a firearm from his own vehicle. A guard reportedly found the victim on the ground and saw the suspect inside a Dodge Challenger nearby. Footage from the bar's security system appeared to show people gathered in the parking lot, two men speaking before one walked away to place undisclosed items on the ground, and what the outlet's report described as a physical confrontation escalating between the two men.
Per the same account, Dowdy allegedly produced a firearm during that confrontation and shot the victim multiple times. A bartender told detectives she recalled hearing no arguments beforehand and said the cause of the shooting was unclear to her, but she said Dowdy and the victim were reportedly friends who had spent time together before the shooting. The victim reportedly spent that night with Dowdy and others at the bar, and later identified Dowdy as the person who shot him after the two exchanged words.
Flock Cameras, a BMV Search and a Disputed Car Color
Detectives said Dowdy and other witnesses fled the area after the shooting. Investigators then turned to the Flock Safety camera system to search for vehicles matching the shooting's date and time, and a BMV search reportedly linked a bright green Dodge Challenger to Dowdy. That detail sits alongside an earlier, conflicting description in the case: preliminary information had described the suspect fleeing in a yellow Dodge Challenger, the outlet's report notes, while the vehicle later tied to Dowdy through the BMV search was described as bright green.
Detectives visited an address listed for Dowdy on Crousore Road but could not locate him or his vehicle, the report states. An arrest warrant was ultimately served on Nov. 9, and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department announced Dowdy's arrest. He was charged with attempted murder, a level 1 felony, and aggravated battery, a level 3 felony, and was preliminarily charged with cocaine possession, per IMPD. His jury trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 9, 2027, in Marion Superior Court 27, and the court set his cash bond at $40,000.
Part of a Broader Shift in Indianapolis Shootings
The case adds to a string of violent incidents reported across the city's east side in recent months. In a separate incident, officers found an adult male shooting victim among a small crowd on the 1700 block of North Ritter Avenue and transported him to a hospital in critical condition, according to a report from Hoodline, which noted that incident had not been tied to a separate Saturday shooting near Community Hospital East.
Even so, citywide numbers suggest shootings have been trending downward. Hoodline's report, citing IMPD data, found Indianapolis had recorded 185 non-fatal shootings involving 214 victims so far in 2026, a 38% decrease from 289 incidents and 345 victims over the same period in 2025. As of July 6, the city had also recorded 53 homicides, a 20% drop year over year, along with a 33% decline in non-fatal shooting incidents; overall violent crime was down 29% and property crime had fallen 13.5% over that stretch.
Dowdy's case is not the only recent Marion County attempted-murder charge stemming from an alleged assault between people who knew each other. In a separate west-side incident, prosecutors filed attempted-murder charges after police said a man intentionally ran over another man with a vehicle, according to Fox 59. Multiple witnesses helped identify the driver in that case as 34-year-old Manuel Garcia-Gomez, who was arrested on charges including attempted murder, aggravated battery and criminal recklessness and held on a $400,000 bond along with an ICE detainer, the outlet reported.
