Authorities brace for retaliation in wake of after-prom party shooting in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS — The victim of Sunday morning’s shootout on the north side of Indianapolis has been identified as 38-year-old Brittany Marie Members.

Two other people were wounded at a short-term rental property at 40^th Street and Park Avenue when an SUV full of gunmen opened fire on the house where Members’ daughter was hosting an after-prom party.

Approximately 100 shell casings from multiple guns were discovered at the scene as the result of three volleys of gunfire — two from the assailants and one from the people at the house.

A photograph from earlier in the evening showed three partygoers displaying four guns — two of them large semi-automatic rifles with banana clips — standing in front of party decorations.

Area residents told FOX59/CBS4 that party planners returned to the home Sunday night and removed the decorations nearly 24 hours after the early morning shooting.

“It was pure pandemonium, it was scary, it was terrifying, and I would have likened it to some type of war movie,” said Brandi Mitchell, a neighbor who awoke to a bullet hole in the front window of her home at 1 a.m. Sunday. “We heard a lot of yelling, a lot of screaming, so we just knew at that point it was gunfire, and I just immediately took cover.”

Neighborhood security video obtained by FOX59/CBS4 recorded the sounds of gunfire, people fleeing the scene on foot and a white SUV that rolled backward up Park Avenue after the first round of shots, headed back toward the house for a second volley and appeared to drive in reverse again after the partygoers fired back.

Mitchell said neighbors have recognized that the large yellow house across the street has been utilized as a short-term rental since early 2025, and while there was no previous trouble, she became uneasy as Saturday night rolled on and more young people arrived at the address.

“But as the night progressed, there were more and more people showing up, and we were getting a little agitated because it’s a lot of people,” Mitchell said. “And when there’s a lot of people, and didn’t look like a lot of supervision after those hours, it could get a little scary.”

The City’s Office of Public Health and Safety will deploy violence interrupters to reach out to victims and the community in an attempt to quell any potential retaliation.

“We don’t want that one shooting to become four, and we don’t want that one homicide to become four,” said Deputy Public Safety Director Tony Lopez.

In the coming days, Lopez’s staff will be “engaging with the family, engaging with others, trying to figure out if retaliation is possible, where’s the retaliation coming from.”

Lopez said warmer weather and springtime or end-of-school celebrations bring more parties to short-term rental properties around Indianapolis, making it challenging to monitor and follow up on violence that occasionally occurs.

City officials have indicated it is likely the owner of the Park Avenue property may face a fine for failing to register his short-term rental location with the Bureau of Neighborhood Services.