Francisco Cruz Hernandez, a 25-year-old Hispanic man, was killed on September 20, 2024, on Indianapolis’ north side, in a shooting that left him slumped inside a vehicle and a quiet residential area suddenly flooded with police lights. That Friday evening, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police were dispatched to the 7700 block of Kenworthy Drive just before 8 p.m. after a report of a person shot.
When officers reached the scene, they found him inside the vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound, and Indianapolis EMS pronounced him dead there.
In the moments that followed the gunfire, the vehicle didn’t simply stop—it kept moving long enough to strike a nearby apartment building, turning the shooting into a wider scare for the people who lived just feet away. Police said the collision was secondary to the shooting, and residents inside the apartment were not injured. Investigators treated the area as a homicide scene, working to reconstruct what happened in the seconds before the car drifted into the building, and trying to separate the panic of the crash from the violence that caused it.
In the days after the shooting, the Marion County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as Francisco Cruz Hernandez and classified the manner of death as a homicide. Detectives continued canvassing and reviewing available surveillance, while police emphasized they did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the public. Investigators also said they had no information to share publicly about a motive, and they had not described any suspect.
As for arrests, the publicly available reporting tied to the initial investigation stated that no one was in custody, and the updates in those reports focused on the search for witnesses and footage rather than on a detained suspect. Police directed anyone with information to contact Detective Jose Torres at the IMPD Homicide Office, underscoring that, at least in the information released publicly, the case hinged on what neighbors may have seen or what cameras may have captured in the moments leading up to the fatal shot.
