IMPD Remembers the "Battle of Elder Ave", Indianapolis

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GEARHEAD_ENG

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Yesterday marked the 60 year anniversary of the "Battle of Elder Avenue". For those of you who don't know, this was the most violent gun battle in Indianapolis history. It started when two Policemen responded to a disturbance on Elder Ave. on reports of a mentally ill man who shot his wife. He was armed with a 12ga shotgun and 22lr. Over 200 Policemen responded, 9 wounded, and 10,000 rounds (conflicting number) were exchanged. Despite using tear gas and firing a large amount of rounds into the home, the battle continued for over 4 hours. The gun fight was brought to a stop by a team of officers taking cover behind a armored car to the front door gaining entrance the home. Finally ending in a close quarter gun fight, fatally injuring the gunman with a 12ga shotgun.

The news artical states the IMPD learned a great deal from the incident and is a better department because of it. How do you think police/SWAT would respond today?



Below is a quote from the local news yesterday;

The police department thinks history is important because we learned a lot of things from this incident. We’re a much better police department because of this incident. And because of this incident, we’re able to make these types of cases a lot safer for both the officers and for the public these days,” said Bryan Roach Deputy Chief of Administration.
Click to expand...
http://wishtv.com/2014/06/30/impd-remembers-the-battle-of-elder-avenue/
 
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Several accounts I read said 10k rounds exchanged. The news artical claimed 2k so there is some conflicting numbers, but over 60 years I'd expect the truth to be stretched.

If 200 officers responded for 4 hours that would mean each officer would have to fire 12 rounds per hour into the house to add up to 10k. The diagram of the event shows a machine gunner at the corner of a house, so he may have went through a can or two as well.

The Battle of Elder Avenue Photo Montage: http://youtu.be/BVmsYU9rAcQ
 
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How much different would it be today?

Not much, actually.

There would still be an armored car, and now it would be a SWAT team engaging in one of the (claimed) 80,000 raids conducted by SWAT units every year in this country.

Fewer rounds would be exchanged.

Tear gas would still be fired.

SWAT would try to negotiate the person out.

Odds are that the perp would still be killed.
 
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