Police apprehend man waving gun on Circle

Indianapolis police on Friday afternoon arrested a man who was waving a hand gun on Monument Circle and preliminarily charged him with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon and pointing a firearm.

The man, who emerged from a gray Honda Accord stopped in the middle of Meridian Street on the south side of the Circle, waved a “Free Haiti” flag as police blocked off the Circle and pointed weapons at him.

No one was injured in the incident, which closed the Circle for at least an hour.

Police have cordoned off the Circle in downtown Indy as a man who appears to have a gun waves a flag at Meridian Street on the south side of the Circle. This video was shot from the windows in IBJ Media’s office in the AES Building. pic.twitter.com/Z25lPmNdLi

— IBJ News (@IBJnews) April 4, 2025

Just after the incident, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police spokesman Drew Brown told reporters that police received a report just before 4 p.m. about an armed person on Monument Circle firing shots into the air.

After arriving on the scene, officers determined the man posed a “significant public safety threat” and called for more resources while trying to de-escalate the situation, Brown said. The spokesman did not identify the suspect.

IBJ reporters and editors watched the incident from IBJ Media’s third floor office in the AES building in the southeast quadrant of the Circle. The street around the Circle remained closed at 5 p.m. but businesses were no longer on lockdown.

The man made a lap around the Circle with police following behind in cars and on foot with weapons drawn, then returned to the south side of the Circle where he dropped the gun. An officer then ran up and tackled him.

More officers piled on and put him in handcuffs before searching him and moving him into a white police van.

Brown said downtown district officers joined other IMPD officers and SWAT officers who “continuously gave the individual loud verbal commands and utilized less lethal munitions to apprehend the suspect and take him into custody without further issue.” Brown said the police used bean-bag shotguns to try to stop the man.

“This is the heart of our city, the heart of our state,” Brown said. “And we’re thankful that we were able to resolve the situation peacefully. We’re proud of our officers, to be able to bring that situation to a close quickly.”

After the man was arrested, the gun appeared to be laying on the street and open alcohol containers sat on the hood of the car.

A witness said the man’s car slammed into a barrier at the Circle. “And then he gets out of the car and it’s moving,” said a Sushi Boss employee, who declined to share her name with an IBJ reporter.

She said the man pulled the flag out of his car and started waving it. She said he then pulled out a gun and shot it three times into the air. Police said they found shell casings at the scene.

“People started running,” she said. “He ends up jumping on top of the car and puts a gun to his head. He’s just yelling stuff.”

Another witness, Christopher Price, said he approached the man to “try to talk him down.”

“I didn’t obviously,” Price told an IBJ reporter. “He turned the gun on me three times. I’m thinking, either I’m blessed, I’m protected, I’m lucky … or he’s out of ammo.”

Price said he tried to talk to the man about Jesus. “He didn’t have some great things to say about Jesus,” he said. “But hey, a lot of people are that way.”

Brown, the police spokesman, said the incident appeared to be isolated. “There’s no ongoing threat to the public that investigators are aware of,” he said.

IMPD is searching a man they apprehended after he walked around the Circle waving a gun and a flag. The video was taken from IBJ Media’s office on the third floor of the AES Building. pic.twitter.com/oqq6kafrVm

— IBJ News (@IBJnews) April 4, 2025