CUMBERLAND, Ind (WISH) — Police believe a Sunday shooting that left a juvenile hurt in the town of Cumberland may be tied to a drug deal gone wrong.

The shooting was the third in the same area in just over a week.

News 8 obtained video that Cumberland Police Department says shows a person of interest in Sunday’s shooting, which left a teen boy shot in the leg. The person of interest was carrying a blue backpack and what police say is a ski mask over his face. News 8 obtained the video from someone in the neighborhood who did not want to be identified.

Detective-Sgt. Mark Waggoner of Cumberland Police Department on Monday told News 8, “We don’t have much information on the suspects right now. We don’t have a lot of cooperation happening. We’re hoping to get more cooperation as we go through, and identify some suspects.”

The shooting happened just before 4 p.m. Sunday inside of a home in the 800 block of Coolee Lane during what police called a drug transaction. A bullet hole was left in the front window of the home.

Waggoner said he’s not getting much information or cooperation from the teen boy shot, who is on a probation sentence issued from a Marion County court.

In Indiana, courts don’t publicly share the names of juveniles who are charged with crimes unless they are charged as adults, so the names of juveniles who are adjudicated are generally not released to the public. 

Waggoner said the teen boy has had past run-ins with the police and has been using their services to get back on the right track. “I’m not sure on what the answers going to be on how juveniles are getting guns, or why they’re going so quickly to resolving to gun violence instead of communication skills and conflict resolution skills. It’s just not something that’s being taught.”

Neighbors were afraid to speak on camera, but told News 8 that they’re very concerned about the recent violence, and some are even considering moving.

Cumberland is a town of more than 7,200 residents that straddles the border of Marion and Hancock counties. According to STATS Indiana, its population during the 2020 census was 5,957.

Waggoner said Sunday’s shooting is part of a disturbing trend of violence involving juveniles. “We’ve had three shootings in eight days, which is quite a lot for us. The first two shootings were in the same intersection. I don’t have any evidence to suggest they were the same people. The first incident did involve a juvenile victim and juvenile suspects. The second, we don’t have anyone confirmed, but the witnesses describe juvenile suspects.”

Waggoner says that so far this year there have been six nonfatal shootings in Cumberland, with two involving juvenile victims.

In the town’s one fatal shooting this year, the victim was a juvenile.

“From 2020 to now, we’ve definitely seen a higher uptick to what we’ve seen previously to that. I’m not sure why, what the causation is. I think Marion County has seen the uptick as well. Generally what the city sees, we kind of see as well.”

Marion County’s population has increased from 977,203 in the 2020 census to an estimated 981,628 in 2024, STATS Indiana shows.

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