A man died Monday night after being struck by a vehicle on Indianapolis's east side, and police say the driver fled without stopping. Officers were dispatched to the 3500 block of North Shadeland Avenue shortly after 8 p.m., where a firefighter found the man lying in the street with injuries consistent with being hit by a car.
According to Fox 59, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to the report of a hit-and-run and found the man suffering from trauma-related injuries. The Marion County Coroner's Office said it would release the victim's identification only after next of kin have been properly notified.
An Indianapolis Fire Department firefighter was the one who discovered the man in the roadway and determined he had been struck by a vehicle, per WISH-TV. The man, described as Black and in his 20s or 30s, was taken to a hospital, where he later died. The station's report notes that police had no witnesses come forward and could not provide any information on a suspect or a description of the vehicle involved.
No Leads Yet in Monday Night's Crash
As of the latest update, investigators have not identified a suspect vehicle or driver, and no one has stepped forward with information about what happened in the moments before the crash. The lack of witnesses leaves a significant gap in the investigation on a stretch of North Shadeland Avenue that has seen fatal hit-and-run crashes before.
That same stretch of roadway was the site of another deadly hit-and-run in which Stephen Wasczcak died after being struck by a car, the same WISH-TV account notes. In that earlier case, police said Jevontae Wilkins, 25, was scheduled to be formally charged with felonies including leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and causing death while operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, and investigators eventually found the car they said Wilkins drove, a Chrysler 300, at a junkyard on East 30th Street. It is not established whether Monday's crash is connected to that earlier case.
A City Still Grappling With Hit-and-Run Deaths
Indianapolis has struggled for years with the toll of drivers who flee after striking people on its streets. A 2022 report from the same station found that 21 pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists had been killed in hit-and-run crashes that year, compared with as few as 14 in 2018, and that the city had already surpassed its 2021 total with 12 weeks still left in the year.
That same report found IMPD had made arrests in 11 of its fatal hit-and-run investigations by that point in 2022, even as more than 6,000 hit-and-runs had been reported citywide. It also noted that 34 pedestrians and bicycle riders had been killed that year alone, with nearly 200 more injured, and that one death at East 10th Street and North Sheridan Avenue had set a record for the most people killed in hit-and-run crashes in a single year.
For now, Monday's case remains open, with no suspect description and no witnesses publicly identified. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact investigators as the search for the driver continues.
