Indianapolis woke up to heartbreak after a New Year’s Eve shooting on the city’s east side took the life of 18-year-old Aaron Reid Jr., cutting short a future that had barely begun. What should have been a night of celebration ended in gunfire, sirens, and a long investigation that has now led police to a suspect.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, officers were called just before 3 a.m. on December 31, 2025, to the 3600 block of Willowood Drive. A frantic report came in about a person shot. When officers arrived, they found Reid Jr. and a juvenile male suffering from gunshot wounds, both lying in the quiet neighborhood as first responders rushed to help.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported both victims to a nearby hospital. Reid Jr. fought through the night but died from his injuries the following day. Police have not released details about the condition of the juvenile victim, leaving many questions unanswered for a community already shaken.
Homicide detectives immediately took over the scene. They knocked on doors, searched for cameras, spoke with witnesses, and gathered every piece of evidence they could find. For days, investigators followed lead after lead, slowly piecing together what happened in the early hours of that morning.
That work led detectives to identify 19-year-old Le Vonta Harvey as the suspect. On January 20, 2026, members of the IMPD Violent Crimes Unit, working alongside the U.S. Marshals Service and the Marion Police Department, tracked Harvey to Marion, Indiana. He was taken into custody without incident on an active murder warrant.
For Reid Jr.’s family, the arrest brings a measure of movement in a case defined by loss, but not closure. Friends and loved ones remember an 18-year-old whose life ended before adulthood truly began, another young name added to a growing list of lives lost to gun violence in Indianapolis.
Police stressed that an arrest is only an accusation. Harvey is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. The case now moves from the streets to the justice system, where the final answers will be decided.
As the city reflects on yet another deadly shooting, the hope is that accountability can bring some peace to those left behind, even as the pain of New Year’s Eve lingers on Willowood Drive.
