Man killed by IMPD had violent criminal history

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Surveillance video showing someone firing shots into a home was what eventually led to Thursday’s deadly police shooting in Indianapolis.

Just past 8 p.m. Jan. 5, across the street from an elementary school on the city’s east side, security camera video captured a pickup truck stop in the street. Moments later, a man can be heard yelling before opening fire at a house.

Court documents show the victim identified the shooter as Raphael Dekemper, who was killed by police on Thursday.

It wasn’t Dekemper’s first encounter with being violent.

In 1997, Dekemper was convicted of murder. He served 22 years before getting out in 2019.

Since then, his only run-ins with the law were speeding, and operating a vehicle while intoxicated until he was identified as the person who fired into a house.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on Monday got a warrant for his arrest from Marion Superior Court 31. On Thursday, IMPD officers Dekemper him over on Brookside Parkway North. Police say Dekemper opened fire on police when asked to get out of the vehicle.

IMPD released pictures of a bullet hole in the hood of a police car.

Officers returned fire and killed Dekemper.

Police recovered a gun at the scene.

On Friday, IMPD was not commenting specifically about the shooting, but I-Team 8 learned more about the team that tried to arrest Dekemper. They’re known at the violence reduction team.

Commander Richard Riddle of the IMPD East District, said of the team, “They’re definitely the tip of the spear. They’re primary tasked with going after the worst of the worst. Those individuals that have a criminal history to include violent felonies that are carrying guns that are shooting guns at other people, taking other lives, and trying to take those individuals off the street.”

The violence reduction team has been around in some form for decades, but IMPD and the city have ramped up its use since 2020 to reduce gun violence in the city.

Riddle said, “Those units that are specifically targeting gun violence are going into situations where they know more often than not that individual that they’re trying to take into custody will be armed with a firearm and as we have seen across the past few months those individuals that are illegally possessing firearms are not afraid to then utilize that firearm against a uniformed police officer. So, it’s very scary. Our officers are doing a fantastic job.”

IMPD on Friday continued to investigate the police shooting that killed Dekemper.