At least 7 shot, all under the age of 17, in mass shooting near Indianapolis mall

Seven children were injured in a shooting outside a mall in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday night, police said.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officers were on patrol when they heard gunshots just after 11:30 p.m. and arrived on a block outside the Circle Centre Mall. According to police, officers saw six people injured with gunshot wounds.

All of the victims were between the ages of 12 and 17, police said.

Emergency medical services arrived to transport the children to hospitals, and a seventh person, also under the age of 18, arrived at a hospital on their own. One victim is in critical condition and the other six are stable.

Tanya Terry, deputy chief of operations for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police, described the shooting as “deeply concerning.”

“Once again, we have a situation where young people are resolving conflict with firearms, and it has to stop,” Terry said.

Terry told reporters that officers have noticed a pattern of young people leaving the mall after it closes at 7 p.m. and circulating in the nearby downtown area for hours. She noted that if parents don’t know where their 12-year-old is at 11:30 p.m. before Easter, that should “be a priority.”

“I think everybody sees the messages in the evening at 10 o’clock, ‘Parents, do you know where your children are?'” Terry said, referencing an old public service announcement. “And we would ask for our parents to get involved in what their children are out doing, especially at these hours of the evening.”

Police have not made an arrest in the case and have not provided information about a potential suspect. Detectives with the department have begun an aggravated assault investigation, police said.

This is the third shooting in three weekends in Indianapolis, according to NBC affiliate WTHR.

Last Sunday, five people including an officer were killed in a shooting in the east side of the city, the station reported. An officer shot and killed the suspect in that case.

And one person was killed in a shooting at a bar on March 16, leaving five others injured, according to the Indianapolis Star. A suspect was arrested and charged in the shooting after police were able to identify a shooter using surveillance footage inside the bar, the newspaper reported.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com