Police responded March 17 and April 3 to shootings in Bloomington.
Police have arrested two teenagers and charged them with attempted murder for carrying out separate shootings in the Bloomington area in recent weeks.
Officials say Hachime Abou, 18, of Bloomington, shot a teenager near a middle school earlier this month and attempted to shoot another man in March.
Abou faces attempted murder charges for both attacks as well as one charge of criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon. He’s being held at the Monroe County jail. It wasn’t immediately clear Friday if he had an attorney.
Police responded March 17 to a report of gunfire in the Crestmont neighborhood but did not locate any victims. However, police say, a witness described seeing a blue passenger car with several people gathered around it listening to music.
The witness “then observed three individuals wearing face-coverings and hooded sweatshirts that appeared to be sneaking behind a building near where the car was parked,” police said in an emailed statement. “The three masked individuals all began firing handguns towards the blue passenger car and everyone that had been standing around it scattered as the vehicle sped off eastbound on 13th Street.”
The statement said officers located the car and found a bullet hole in the hood. It said the owner told police he had been targeted by three people.
According to police, they used surveillance video to identify Abou and two juveniles. One of the juveniles, a 17-year-old, was also arrested Thursday. Neither of the two teenagers was identified. It wasn’t clear what charges the third might face. It also wasn’t immediately clear if any of them had retained attorneys as of Friday.
Police say they were monitoring Abou while he was in the front seat of a vehicle being driven by a different Bloomington resident Thursday. They say that woman rammed her car into two police vehicles during the stop. She was also arrested but not immediately identified. It wasn’t clear what charges she faced or if she had an attorney.
They say the 17-year-old approached officers during that stop, and he was arrested shortly thereafter. He faces the same charges as Abou.
Investigators received an arrest warrant for Abou shortly after the March shooting but couldn’t locate him until Thursday, according to the police statement.
In the more recent incident, near the Tri-North Middle School on April 3, police said Abou opened fire from a vehicle toward three minors. A 17-year-old sustained a gunshot wound to the leg and was treated at IU Health Bloomington Hospital.
They also arrested one of the other minors for producing a firearm of his own and firing back at the car as the shooter fled.
The unidentified 15-year-old faces charges for possession of a handgun on school property and without a license. He’s being held at a secure juvenile detention facility. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
