Indianapolis Metropolitan police say they have identified suspects in Thursday’s school bus stop robberies.

Bill Benjamin, deputy chief of investigations, told a street-corner rally this morning that detectives are asking relatives of the suspects to help get them to surrender. Benjamin said IMPD would “get them under arrest.”

Benjamin was among about 50 community leaders, clergy, and Mayor Greg Ballard who gathered in a yard at 42nd Street and Sheridan Avenue in the heart of the Northeastside neighborhood, where students were robbed and two assaulted while waiting at four school bus stops in the dark on Thursday morning.


One after another, the speakers said they were angry about the attacks and supported IMPD’s effort to catch the suspects.


The Rev. Charles Ellis of 25th Street Baptist Church encouraged residents to come forward with information.


“It’s not about snitching,” Ellis said. “It’s about making our community safer.”


Neighborhood resident Rosemary Bigbie wants to see the people responsible caught and sent to prison. She hopes they are rehabilitated.


To report tips to IMPD, call (317) 327-3475 or Crime Stoppers at (317) 262-TIPS.


-- Kevin O'Neal

School bus stops on the Northeastside this morning were safe and secure, one day after gunmen robbed and struck several students waiting for buses.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police reported no incidents this morning as of 7:30 a.m. There also were no arrests from Thursday’s robbery spree, IMPD spokesman Matthew Mount said.

At several bus stops this morning, protective adults waited in cars for school buses to pick up their children.


John Reynolds, 31, waited at 44th and Priscilla streets with son Joseph, 15, a student at New Tech Academy on the Arsenal Technical High School campus. They waited one block north of a bus stop were students were robbed on Tuesday.


Reynolds felt confident that nothing would happen after the attention the robberies stirred up and the promise of extra police patrols.


“They’d be stupid to try it again,” he said.


The robbers are not making big scores, he noted.


“What are you going to get out middle school kids?” Reynolds said. “Most of these kids don’t have money because they get free lunches.”


As the same corner Ladonna Bunch, 38, waited with her 12 year-old daughter in an SUV. She just learned about the robberies this morning on radio news.


She’s concerned about the lack of street lights and the early morning darkness.


“I’ve lived out here for eight years and it’s always been this dark,” Bunch said.


While the area where the robberies occurred is a half-mile south of Arlington High School, neighbors said most of the teens in that residential area are bused to either Warren Township or Lawrence Township schools. At 39th and Priscilla, five high school students waited for their under one of the street’s few lights.


“Why are they trying to rob kids,” asked Darryl Rogers, 15. “All they’ll get is books.”


Watching the teens closely from his car was John Rouse, 39, with his 17-year-old daughter Chloe, a Warren Central student, beside him.


“You’re setting a new low,” said Rouse. “It doesn’t make any sense that they’re robbing kids.”


The street seemed quiet in the morning darkness, but Rouse said he was certain that homeowners on the corner were carefully watching in the wake of Thursday’s trouble that had happened only a few blocks to the north.



-- Kevin O'Neal

City officials promised that more officers would patrol bus stops today, but it might take awhile for some students to feel safe waiting for their ride to school.

Gun-toting robbers victimized at least four students at four school bus stops early Thursday on Indianapolis' Northeastside. At least two students were hit with a pistol, but no one was seriously hurt.

The brash crime spree netted the crooks a few cell phones, MP3 players, book bags, shoes and some lunch money -- and left neighborhood leaders demanding action and one victim's mom in shock.

"Preying on little kids? This is crazy," said Robin Lee, whose 15-year-old daughter was robbed. "They want to pick on a little girl at a bus stop? He pulled a gun on her and robbed her of $2 -- $2 lunch money!"

Police were searching for the robbers late in the day, but no arrests had been made. Mayor Greg Ballard vowed police will take "aggressive action."

Police were looking into the possibility that the incidents Thursday were linked to robberies at payday loan businesses or holdups of Northeastside banks.

Thursday's robberies took place between 6:30 and 7 a.m., while it was still dark. The bus stops were just a few blocks apart.

The spree began at 6:30 a.m. when three men jumped out of a Dodge Intrepid to rob a 16-year-old, police said. After they threatened and hit him, the men took an MP3 player, a cell phone and the teen's cash.

A few minutes later at another stop, a man got out of a car, held a gun to the chest of a 17-year-old boy and threatened to shoot him unless he surrendered his shoes, wallet, backpack and money. Once they had the items, the men drove off.

Moments later, police said, a passenger got out of a car and hit an 18-year-old in the face. Bleeding from his nose and face, the teen gave up a book bag, a wallet, CD and MP3 player and cash, the police report said. The teen required nine stitches.

Then, at 6:55 a.m., police said, an armed man approached a 15-year-old girl and asked her, "What do you have in the bag, baby girl?" The man then pointed his gun inside the bag but found no valuables inside. He took $2 from her and drove off.

Ballard visited with some of the students who were robbed and officials at KIPP Charter School on East 30th Street, where most of the victims are enrolled.

"We're taking aggressive action to make sure these kids and their parents know it's safe to go to school," Ballard said. "What happened this morning is reprehensible, and it underscores the reason public safety will remain our top priority for Indianapolis. Children must be safe in their homes, in their schools and everywhere in between."

Bus stop crime is rare in Indiana and in the nation. Most safety tips for bus stops focus on drivers and accidents, not robberies. The Indianapolis area experienced bus stop rapes in 2007 -- one on the Far Eastside and one in Fishers.

Maxine Gilliam, a neighborhood leader whose home is a block away from one of the bus stop robberies, hopes such crimes remain rare. But she's not hopeful.

"This is like a wake-up call," said Gilliam, president of the Devington Study Circle Action Team, a neighborhood organization based in the area.

"I think this is a culmination of us not being aware of what is really going on in our community."

A resident for 30 years, Gilliam said she has noticed a rise in drug use, drug dealing and prostitution in an area that was once clean and family-friendly.

"We can't really see it in the daytime, but it's happening," she said. "We are trying to build up our community and make it safe. Something desperately has to be done."

KIPP officials, who said five of the school's students were robbed, vowed to work with police to develop guidelines for students to follow at bus stops.

"We need to help students become aware of how to protect themselves," said Shani Ratcliff, one of the school's co-leaders. "For example, if your pickup is at 6:55 a.m., should you really be out there at 6:45? We want to address questions like this."

The holdups came one day after a car was stolen from the lot at Arlington Auto Sales, 2994 N. Arlington Ave.

"We're going to have to pick up the patrols," said the lot's owner, Norvel Terry Jr. "I'm not down on the Police Department, but they've got to start looking -- they've got to be around."

Terry said he's going to contact business owners and community leaders and try to set up an anti-crime meeting this weekend.

Police vowed to keep up their patrols.

"We will pay extra attention to the school bus stops," said Sgt. Matthew Mount, IMPD spokesman. "The subjects have no values, no concerns over who they're victimizing."