By RICK CALLAHAN
The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Four young people who police say were fatally shot inside an apartment in Indianapolis were killed in an apparent targeted attack “fueled by senseless violence,” the city’s mayor said Thursday.

Officers were dispatched to an apartment complex about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday after a caller reported that an apartment’s patio door had been shattered and possibly shot out and that “subjects” were seen fleeing the scene. Inside the apartment, officers found three men and one woman dead from apparent gunshots, police said.

The Marion County Coroner's office identified the three slain men as Marcel Wills, 20, Braxton Ford, 21, and Jalen Roberts, 19; and the woman as 21-year-old Kimari Hunt. The office wasn't yet ready to release information on the causes of death, Marchele Kay Hall, the office's deputy administrator, said.

Police have made no arrests in the killings, saying Thursday afternoon that they had no update on the search for possible suspects.

Craig McCartt, deputy chief of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, said officers worked throughout the night at the apartment on the city’s far northeast side — an area with low-income housing that's plagued by high crime rates — to canvass the scene, interview witnesses and collect evidence.

McCartt said the initial 911 caller said “some subjects were seen fleeing from that residence,” but that officers were still trying to identify suspects in the shootings.

“We do not believe this was a random incident. We believe this was definitely a targeted incident,” McCartt said during a news briefing with the other city officials. P olice do not yet have a motive, but he said investigators have “some theories,” including the possibility that a robbery may have preceded the killings.

Police Chief Randal Taylor said the department is “heartbroken for the families” but is focused on finding whoever is responsible. He urged anyone who may have heard or seen something connected to the shootings to contact police.

“There’s answers out there. There’s people who know,” Taylor said.

Mayor Joe Hogsett decried the killings as an “incredible tragedy, one fueled by senseless violence.”

“In the blink of an eye four young lives have been lost — victims of a cycle of pain and hopelessness that has become all too common in our city and other urban areas across the country,” he said. “This is not acceptable. This is not who we are as a city. This is not normal.”