A Teen Is Dead, Young Thieves Are Raiding Unlocked Cars for Guns, and Evansville's Next Fix Is a Plan City Hall Hasn't Named

The Evansville Civic Center Complex, which houses city hall and the Vanderburgh County courthouse, April 2016. Photo: Nyttend / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry says a new answer to the city's violence is on the way. What it is, what it costs, and which cities supposedly proved it works, City Hall hasn't said.

The promise came in a written statement Terry gave 14 News after a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed Sunday night, Oct. 11, on Madison Avenue near Bedford. “The City also looks forward to sharing more information soon about a new, community-based approach to addressing crime that has proven successful in other cities,” the statement said. It named no program, no partner, no price tag and no city.

That is a lot of trust to ask for in a week like this one.

Police say the killing grew out of a feud between two local groups, “The Sev” and “The Three Fours,” according to the probable cause affidavit as described by 14 News. The affidavit points to a near fight at the Fall Festival two nights earlier and another altercation that same night in the Time Out Lounge parking lot. Keaton Maleki Howard, 18, was arrested Thursday in Morganfield, Kentucky, and faces a single count of murder, the Courier & Press reported. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court, and police say they are still working to identify a second person seen on surveillance video.

What moved the case was not a program. EPD Sgt. Anthony Aussieker told 14 News that surveillance cameras “played a huge role” in the investigation, and that a rap video posted to Instagram and YouTube three days after the shooting helped investigators make an identification.

Three days after the shooting, Terry and the Evansville Police Department opened the first of two “Safer Evansville” town halls at the Dream Center on North Main Street, one day after police say an officer shot and killed an armed man on East Illinois Street. Juvenile crime dominated the evening, the Courier & Press reported.

Police Chief Phillip Smith told the room the teen's death hit close to home. “I know that particular young man's family personally,” he said, according to Eyewitness News (WEHT). “No one should be burying their child.”

Then Smith said something every gun owner in Evansville should hear. Officers are seeing more young people breaking into cars to steal firearms, he said, and many of those cars are unlocked. “Lock your doors. Make it challenging,” Smith said. “If ten out of 20 people lock their doors and you know someone's trying the doors, after a while, they're going to say, you know what? I'm not going to be able to get in cars here.”

That advice costs taxpayers nothing. It is also a reminder that some of the guns in young hands are walking out of Evansville driveways, a problem no new city initiative can solve for the owner.

The money question still matters, because next year's spending plan is already on the books. On Oct. 5 the City Council adopted a 2027 budget of more than $152 million, 14 News reported. The station's rundown of the major line items lists about $6 million to restore 27 miles of city roads, about $20 million for parks and recreation, about $30 million for water and sewer projects, and $182,000 for Flock Safety license-plate cameras. It does not list a new anti-violence program. If one is coming, residents deserve to know whether it would be paid for out of that budget, a grant, or a future appropriation the council has not yet seen.

Those cameras drew fire at the same meeting. Resident Philip Elpers argued the plate readers are an invasion of privacy that went in without public input. “There has to be a commitment in the budget that actually stops all of this in the future until we say it's okay,” he said. Smith defended them, saying the city has used Flock since 2021 and “we've not had one officer violate the policy or procedure of Flock usage in Evansville, Indiana.” Both arguments deserve a real hearing before the city adds anything new to its public-safety tool kit.

City Hall goes into the next session with an upbeat survey in hand. EPD's 2026 Community Survey found 61.1% of respondents feel safe in Evansville overall, up from 55.1% in 2024, but only 452 people answered, down from 861 two years earlier, WJLT reported.

The second town hall is Thursday, Oct. 29, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1800 S. Governor St., and will focus on prevention, community trust and engagement, according to the city's announcement. Speakers listed for the series include Smith, Prosecutor Diana Moers, Sheriff Noah Robinson, Magistrate Judge Celia Pauli and Judge Gary Schutte. The city says resident feedback will “help inform a clear, community-driven public safety roadmap.”

Anyone going should bring four questions. What is the program? Which cities used it, and what did their numbers actually show? What will it cost Evansville, and who pays? And who at City Hall answers for it if the numbers here don't move?

Police ask anyone with information on the Madison Avenue shooting to come forward. Tips can be made anonymously through WeTip, a Facebook message to the Evansville Police Department, or a call to central dispatch, Aussieker said.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.