Indianapolis Councilor's Home Shot at After Supporting Data Center Project

Thirteen rounds fired at a city councilor's front door, a child asleep inside, and a handwritten note tucked beneath the doormat reading "No Data Centers": that is where Indianapolis found itself the morning of April 7, when Ron Gibson, the District 8 Democrat representing the city's near north and east sides, discovered his Devington neighborhood home had been targeted in an overnight attack.

Gibson and his 8-year-old son were inside when the shots were fired between approximately 12:45 a.m. and 12:50 a.m. on April 6, hours after Easter Sunday. Neither was injured. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department was called to the 5000 block of East 41st Street just after 9 a.m. after Gibson found the damage. Officers characterized the incident as "an isolated, targeted incident." The IMPD North District Violent Crimes Task Force is leading the investigation with assistance from the FBI and Homeland Security. No suspects have been identified.

The attack came five days after the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission voted 6-2 on April 1 to approve rezoning for a proposed $500 million data center in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood, a project Gibson had publicly backed despite fierce constituent opposition. He was booed and heckled at the April 1 MDC hearing. The rezoning recommendation now heads to the full City-County Council for a final vote, and Gibson, as the district's councilor, retains the authority to call for an additional public hearing before that vote occurs.

The project is being developed by Metrobloks, a Los Angeles-based startup, on nearly 14 acres at 2505 N. Sherman Drive, the site of the former Sherman Drive-In theater near the Massachusetts Avenue rail corridor. The land is a designated brownfield, left largely vacant and potentially contaminated. Shonna Majors, executive director of the Brightwood Community Center, called the project "environmental racism in action," citing the neighborhood's history of industrial burden and community concerns about noise, heat, water usage, and rising utility costs. The Indianapolis NAACP reversed its earlier support on March 9, aligning with opponents. City-County Councilor Jesse Brown, State Rep. Greg Porter, the Hoosier Environmental Council, and organizations including One Voice Martindale Brightwood all testified against the project at the MDC hearing.

Gibson argued the economic case: the project includes a $2.5 million direct commitment to Martindale-Brightwood, with early estimates suggesting at least $20 million more could flow into the neighborhood through additional investment, alongside up to $10 million in projected annual property tax revenue for Indianapolis. Metrobloks describes the facility as a "low-impact" data center with a closed-loop cooling system designed not to draw groundwater from surrounding homes. A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment completed in September 2025 found no recognized environmental conditions.

In a statement after the shooting, Gibson said: "I am a public servant, but I am also a father and a neighbor. This act brought violence into our neighborhood, the very thing I work every day to stand against. This will not deter me."

Mayor Joe Hogsett condemned the attack, writing that "violence is never the answer" and that "no family in Indianapolis should have to experience this type of violence" in their own home. City-County Council President Maggie A. Lewis called the shooting "an alarming and unacceptable escalation," adding that the council was "deeply thankful that no lives were lost."

The Metrobloks fight distills a conflict now playing out in cities across the country: data centers, drawn by available brownfield land and substantial tax revenue potential, landing in historically underserved neighborhoods where residents have limited institutional leverage to contest them. In Indianapolis, that conflict has generated a federal investigation and left a councilor's home marked by bullet holes. The shooting has made what was already a strained civic process inseparable from a criminal one. Anyone with information is asked to contact IMPD or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.