Madeline Buckley, and Vic Ryckaert

IndyStar

Even before her son was killed, Tasha Morris had felt the pain of loss to gun violence.

Only 10 years old, her nephew, Deshaun Swanson, was killed in September when someone fired bullets at a home holding a memorial for an elderly woman.

Now, Morris said, she is once again reeling from grief after her 18-year-old son, Anthony Morris, was fatally shot around 5:30 p.m. Sunday in another senseless act.

"We're not doing good," Morris said, staring off into the distance. She had just arrived at home on Indianapolis' north side, but she said she wasn't ready to go inside. So she sat in her car.

Anthony Morris was taking classes to get his GED, his mother said. He worked for a roofing company. He once participated in a Christian group for teens. He had two brothers. Police say he might have been shot because of an argument over a cellphone.

"A cellphone ..." Tasha Morris said, bowing her head before she trailed off.

Morris' death occurred during a violent spate of shootings across the city. At least 12 people were shot, six of them fatally, in 60 hours.

Just 48 hours before Anthony Morris died of a gunshot wound to the head, the bullet-riddled body of 35-year-old David Sanders lay for hours Friday evening in full view of rush-hour traffic on North High School Road.

Then, on Saturday, Charles Turner, 30, was shot and killed by a male gunman in an apparent domestic incident in the 4400 block of Campbell Avenue.

Early Sunday, two people were found dead in an SUV parked near 25th Street and Shriver Avenue on the north side.

And about 5 a.m. Monday, just 12 hours after Anthony Morris died, police discovered 34-year-old Tommy Turintine dead in a car — on the same street where Turner was killed.

"This whole thing just makes me sick," said Justin Graves, director of Bethel Community Outreach, the Christian teen group in which Anthony Morris participated. "We've just had so much violence, and it's just heartbreaking."

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Capt. Rich Riddle said some of the shootings stemmed from disputes over property and domestic problems.

"Those are all issues that in our eyes are preventable," Riddle said. "Is it worth taking someone's life over something as simple as a cellphone? Or something as simple as an ongoing dispute with the ex-boyfriend or the ex-husband of your current wife?"

The six weekend deaths bring the city's criminal homicide total to 35 this year. Last year, IMPD had investigated 31 criminal homicides through April 17. Indy recorded a record-breaking 144 criminal homicides in 2015, making it the deadliest year in the city's history.

"It was a very violent weekend in Indianapolis. We're very concerned about that," Riddle said.

A handful of people were injured in nonfatal shootings during the weekend.

A 38-year-old hotel worker is accused of shooting a woman Saturday morning at a south-side Courtyard Marriott, then shooting a man about 3 miles northwest of the hotel in a domestic incident.

Within the next hour, police responded to two other shootings: one in the 3500 block of West 16th Street on the west side, and another at Stuart and 30th streets on the east side.

Not included in the tally of violent shootings, a body was found floating in the White River about 8:45 a.m. Sunday. IMPD and the Indianapolis Fire Department recovered the torso of a man from the river near West New York Street.

The violence, Riddle said, can be linked to deep-seated social issues, including poverty, unemployment and a tendency to resort to violence as a means of conflict resolution.

"All those lend themselves to crime," Riddle said. "We're trying to figure out exactly what some of those root issues are ... and seeing how best we can address them from here."

Raymond Carver showed up at the scene of the Monday morning homicide. Carver knows well the pain that violence inflicts on a family. His son was shot to death in March.

"I'm sick of homicides," Carver said.

Carver said he spent 2015 as part of a group of volunteers who lent comfort and prayer to homicide victims. On March 10, his son Ramon D. Carver, 26, was shot to death in the parking lot of the Bavarian Village apartments, in the 3000 block of Bavarian East Drive. Marcus Crowdus, 23, is wanted in connection with the shooting.

Carver said the community must work together to prevent violence.

"We're going to reach out to these young guys and try to encourage these guys that they don't have to put a gun in their hands and go out and kill one another," Carver said. "They can do whatever they choose to do in life besides homicides and taking each other's lives."

IndyStar reporters Kristine Guerra, Michael Anthony Adams, Olivia Lewis and Justin Mack contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar reporter Madeline Buckley at (317) 444-6083. Follow her on Twitter: @Mabuckley88.

Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @vicryc.

*An earlier version of this story listed incorrect names for two victims.