Multiple shootings near Notre Dame leave community demanding action

“It's just weird like that this stuff happens and like it kind of keeps happening” said Notre Dame graduate student Brodie Arnold, “Yeah. I mean, when I came here that was one of the first things that I heard about the street was like stuff like this happens”.

As a non-Indiana resident even he knew about the potential dangers on Eddy Street.

There was an incident here in August, and two more back in September of 2025.

Neighbors say they're concerned about the safety here. With one longtime resident pleading for change.

“It's just If they don't If It's not the officer's fault. It's nothing they could do, because they don't make the laws.” said long-time South Bend resident Piazano Marks, “It's the government, our US government, whose state-law government needs to have a change to the gun law, and things will start to get a lot better”.

“Since we are closed on the street for a special event parking, if they maybe put metal detectors in, that might prevent some problems from happening, but I'm not really sure what else can be done.” said O’Roukes General Manager Amber Goddard, “They've already increased police presence and done other measures to ensure safety. There's plenty of security and officers up and down the street, and it still happened with all that going on. So, I don't really know what else can help”.

Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski says actions like blocking off Eddy Street with metal detectors would have to come from Eddy Street Commons. "It's everybody's right to walk down a sidewalk and we can't stop people from doing that. We can't stop people from standing in their front yard." said Chief Scott Ruszkowski, South Bend Police

With neighbors at a loss, local businesses have already started feeling the effects of the danger.

Goddard says she's had to comp customers thousands of dollars over their experience.

“So, we're trying to calm everyone's nerves and make them feel better, but then there were like fumes from pepper spray outside,” said Goddard, “I'm guessing, that started to come in, and people were coughing, and then we had all kinds of other problems we had to deal with. So, a lot of people did leave because they just weren't comfortable in the situation”.

And Chief Ruszkowski says change comes down to personal choices and intervention.

"Why is the intervention not occurring? Or at least let us know, so we can go maybe have a conversation with somebody at the very least. We don't want to put somebody in handcuffs if we don't have to and if we can do something to avoid that.” said Ruszkowski “most certainly we don't want to put a sheet over them or crime scene tape around them".

Chief Ruszkowski says a group of up to 700 people came to Eddy Street Commons after tailgates were shut down, drawing large crowds. He says Notre Dame Police notified them about someone pointing a gun at people on campus. South Bend P-D started investigating and found someone matching the suspect description at Brother's, but the person wasn't armed. Shortly after, the shot was fired on the opposite end of Eddy Street, and police quickly responded.

The person shot and officer injured are okay tonight, but police are still looking for the shooter.