Malik Asante Parks, 23, was fatally shot in the early hours of May 8, 2021, as he left a woman’s apartment at the Lake Castleton Apartments on Indianapolis’ northeast side. Family members say Malik was ambushed and believe he may have been followed after a night out celebrating a birthday. The killing was recorded as the city’s 88th homicide that year.

Born January 30, 1998, in Terre Haute, Malik graduated from Ben Davis High School and attended Vincennes University. Loved ones remembered him for a vibrant personality, his love of video games, basketball, dancing and rapping, and for helping his mother care for his niece and nephew. Friends and family gathered afterward to mourn and to protest rising gun violence, stressing that Malik was more than a statistic.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is investigating and has not announced any arrests or named suspects. If anyone has information about Malik’s movements that night or about people seen near Lake Castleton Apartments before dawn on May 8, please share what you know.