Friday’s US Independence Day holiday was marked by multiple shootings across the US, including one in Indianapolis that left at least two dead and five wounded as a police chief voiced frustration over the latest acts of violence in his city.
Indianapolis metropolitan police chief Chris Bailey told reporters early Saturday morning that the Fourth of July mayhem a day earlier was “completely unacceptable and unnecessary” – and that parents and guardians needed to better control their children.
“Hundreds of unsupervised kids down here,” he said, while speaking in the city’s downtown. “I don’t know how many times I had to say it: We are not your children’s keepers. You are! And parents and guardians have got to step up.”
Police said one minor had died at a hospital after the shooting.
Mass shootings – defined as cases where four or more shooting victims are injured or killed – were reported in other cities, including Philadelphia and Chicago and Brockton, Massachusetts, where six people were hospitalized following an early morning fight Saturday.