Owner learns dog shot, killed at Red Line bus station

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis man was searching for answers Tuesday night after he says his dog was gunned down and killed at a bus station on IndyGo’s new Red Line transit route.

The shooting was near East 42nd Street and North College Avenue, an area with surveillance cameras at the bus station and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department substation.

But, News 8 was told Tuesday, no video of the incident is available.

IndyGo’s Red Line began Sept. 1 with new bus stations in the center of streets running from downtown to the north side. The bus stations are lit 24/7.

At that station again Tuesday, Nicholas Almeda was trying to piece together who could have shot his 1.5-year-old Great Pyrenees puppy named Dioji.

“It doesn’t make any sense. Nobody thinks about the fact that you know that’s a little boy, a little girl’s dog,” Almeda said.

Almeda said his kids let his two dogs outside around 9 p.m. Monday and accidentally left a fence gate open. It didn’t take long before the family realized the dogs were missing. The learned via a social media app for neighbors that the canines had made their way to the new bus station just down the street from their house on College Avenue.

“I got a response back from someone on Nextdoor saying that she had heard about a dog that had been shot on 42nd and College, and I took off running up here and it was Dioji,” Almeda said.

By the time Almeda got there, it was too late. Dioji was dead.

“They weren’t barking or growling or doing anything, and somebody came around the corner in a dark SUV, fired a single shot and shot him in the chest and killed him,” Almeda said.

Blood was still on the sidewalk Tuesday afternoon.

Almeda said he does not know why someone would do this. He said people at the bus stop told him what happened.

“The SUV just took off, and everbody kind of panicked because they heard the gunshot, and when everybody came to, they saw what happened. Dioji, he was a solid-white Great Pyrenees. So it was pretty clear to tell something that happened to him and all the white fur … well, it wasn’t white anymore,” Almeda said.

Now, Almeda is looking for answers and hoping that the person who did this is caught.

“He was just a big teddy bear. He was still a puppy. They shot a puppy,” Almeda said.

He started a GoFundMe to help for cremation of Dioji.

News 8 reached out to IndyGo and IMPD. Both said Tuesday afternoon they were unaware of the shooting at the bus stop. Almeda said he had filed a police report.

Statement

IndyGo issued this statement on Wednesday, hours after the News 8 report aired:

“First of all, our thoughts are with the family of the dog that was shot and killed near 42nd Street on Monday night.

“IndyGo has provided to IMPD access to video footage taken at the 42nd Street Red Line station that may be helpful in the investigation. IMPD will determine if and when the footage will be made available to media outlets.”