E.J. Clark

A teen is shot to death walking home
E.J. Clark was a 19-year-old Black man with a quiet demeanor and a smile his family could not deny. Described as a loyal defender, E.J. was a father figure to his younger brother, Aaron. He was the oldest of his mother Christina Clark's three children and had a grandfather who served as his own father figure. E.J. loved to cook, a skill he picked up from his mother and grandmother, and his family fondly remembered a time he accidentally used salt instead of sugar while baking cookies. After attending Lawrence Central High School, he left during his senior year to work, getting a job at a car wash and his own apartment. He soon told his mother she had been right and that he planned to get his diploma and study auto mechanics at Lincoln Technical Institute. On the day he died, he had spoken to his estranged father on the phone and agreed to finally meet with him.

In the early morning hours of June 14, 2012, E.J. was walking home from his girlfriend’s apartment in Lawrence, Indiana. Around 1:40 a.m., a Lawrence police officer on patrol discovered him slumped in the roadway in the 8700 block of East 46th Street. At first, the officer thought E.J. might have been hit by a car or was intoxicated, and E.J. tried to say he was okay. Soon after, however, he told the officer, "I think I've been shot." Suffering from a single gunshot wound to his lower abdomen, E.J. tried to call his mother, but the call went to her voicemail.

An ambulance rushed E.J. to Methodist Hospital, while police found a shell casing lying in the street beside where he had fallen. The single bullet had sliced through a vital intersection of blood vessels, causing severe internal bleeding. E.J. died shortly after arriving at the hospital. In the few minutes he had left, he was able to give the investigating officer a critical lead. He said that four Black males had gotten out of a silver car, which he specified was a Dodge Neon, before he was shot. Detectives also learned that E.J. had been in a fight, but no further information was released.

Despite the description E.J. provided to police in his final moments, no arrests have ever been made in his killing. His close-knit family continues to plead for information that could help investigators solve the case. As of February 2016, his homicide remains unsolved. Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana is seeking information and urges anyone with knowledge of the crime to call 317-262-8477.