Food delivery driver fatally shot during robbery on night's last stop Victim's pickup crashed into apartment building on Far Eastside.

Michael Anthony Adams | IndyStar

Mark Miller was delivering his final Chinese food order of the night when he was fatally shot inside his pickup Tuesday on the Far Eastside, police said, making him Indianapolis' 120th homicide victim of 2015.

The Marion County coroner's office said Wednesday that Miller, 27, was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest.

"Mark has always been a really hard worker," said one of his close friends, Will Schlosser. "He was actually working for China King at the time of (the shooting). It was his last delivery of the night."

An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department report said Miller was killed during a robbery in the Teal Run apartments, just northeast of 21st Street and Mitthoefer Road.

Shortly after 10 p.m., IMPD officers were dispatched to the 2200 block of Windsong Drive on a report of shots fired in the area. Then, police said, dispatch received more calls indicating a vehicle had crashed into an apartment building.

“I was in my room; I was talking to a friend of mine," said Liz Anderson, who lives in Teal Run. "I’d just got off the phone, heard a shot, heard a big boom, then came from the bedroom and saw" that the truck had burst through a carport in front of her unit, reversed across the lawn and smashed into the building behind her apartment.

Anderson, who has lived in Teal Run four months, said she has heard gunfire on three occasions but acknowledged that violent crimes are occurring all over the city.

This most recent fatal shooting happened just hours after Democrat Joe Hogsett claimed victory in the race for mayor of Indianapolis. Hogsett has called for adding 150 new police officers and using technology to better utilize that force and target high-crime areas. That pledge comes as the city is facing an increase in violent crime, including shootings and criminal homicides, which are on pace to eclipse last year's total. The 2014 homicide count was the highest in eight years.

In a statement, police said arriving officers found Miller unresponsive inside his Ford pickup, which had crashed into an unoccupied apartment building. Officers then learned Miller had been shot at least once.

“We didn’t hear any gunshots," said Johnathan Cave, who lives in a separate apartment complex that backs up to Teal Run. "I thought I did, but I can’t honestly clarify.”

Cave said his 2-year-old German shepherd, Sadie, started barking aggressively just before he and his wife heard a crash.

"I ran downstairs, looked out back and I saw this," Cave said. “Sadie wouldn’t have kept barking if she didn’t see somebody.”

Emergency medical personnel pronounced Miller dead at the scene. IMPD officials said Wednesday the case remains under investigation and no arrests have been made.

A talented musician, Miller belonged to a tight-knit community of local Indy entertainers, Schlosser said.

"His mother bought his first drum set for him when he was 8 years old," Schlosser said. While working as a delivery driver for China King and Jimmy John's, Schlosser said, Miller was working to get "a new project back together," as well as his old band, Halbrid.

In January 2014, Schlosser lost another one of his friends, Daniel Jaffke, to a food delivery shooting. Jaffke was delivering pizza for Papa John's when he was gunned down in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 4100 block of Continental Court on the Southside. A 27-year-old man was later convicted of Jaffke's murder.

"We did a memorial show for him at the same location that we're doing the one for Mark," said Schlosser, who, with the help of Mona Demaggio, has arranged a memorial concert for Miller at the 5th Quarter Lounge, 306 Prospect St., Jan. 9.

Schlosser also has set up a GoFundMe crowdfunding account "to help his family with any of their financial needs" for Miller's funeral.

Star reporters Madeline Buckley and Tim Evans contributed to this story. For the latest updates, follow IndyStar reporter Michael Anthony Adams on Twitter: @MichaelAdams317