We first came to know Nikki Schumpert when she called the Indianapolis Liberation Center phone line asking for help. Nikki told us that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department shot and killed her son, Adam Sykes, and she couldn’t get answers from elected leaders. Nikki found us online and saw our record of fighting alongside victims of police terror throughout Indianapolis and the state. Meanwhile, we already read the IMPD’s narrative in the news and knew that, like all of their other narratives, it wasn’t the truth.
Today, February 25, 2026 marks one year since IMPD officer Grant Snyder shot and killed Adam Sykes on the near eastside of Indianapolis. For his family, this anniversary is not only a time to remember the bright and still growing young man Adam was; it is also an extension of an unresolved crisis for our entire system. Yet another death at the hands of officers and another year without any accountability, transparency, or justice. This anniversary also marks the first time in recent history that the people turned to an organization willing to take on the IMPD and expose their lies. While the IMPD pieced together their half-truths, we conducted our own investigation under Nikki’s leadership. As the IMPD was busy demonizing Adam, we spoke to people who knew him, people like Leon Benson, who mostly recalled how, during a brief prison stint, Adam spent the whole time making himself a better father for his daughter.
The IMPD lies about February 25, 2025. Surprised?
On the early morning of February 25, 2025, IMPD officers responding to a report of an injured woman at a Speedway gas station near State and East Washington streets encountered Adam Sykes. Adam had no connection to the incident. In fact, at the time Adam was protecting a young woman from harassment.
Rather than help Adam protect this woman, Grant Snyder–who recognized Sykes from an outstanding warrant related to a minor theft–tried detaining Adam outside the store.
Body camera footage later released by IMPD shows Sykes declining interaction and attempting to leave before officers pursued him on foot and threatened deployment of a taser, which Snyder then discharged, causing Sykes to fall. Police say a handgun became visible during the fall and that Sykes reached toward it, prompting Snyder to fire three shots; Sykes later died at a hospital from his injuries. The entire encounter unfolded in seconds.
What began as a response to an unrelated emergency ended with a man dead in the street, yet another Black man guilty, tried, and executed by the IMPD.
Community investigation reveals incoherent evidence
Almost immediately, Sykes’ family and community organizers challenged the official narrative based on the findings of our own investigation. Nikki, her family, Liberation Center volunteers met at the gas station on State Ave. and Washington St. to conduct our own objective investigation. We spoke with workers going in and out of the gas station on a cold March evening. We made a flyer to hand out and post with the Liberation Center phone number and Adam’s picture on it to solicit more information from the public on what happened that night.
We talked to many people who knew Adam in the neighborhood. They told us that he was a good man. Even though he understandably struggled to re-enter society after his prison stint, those in the community said he was “always willing to help people in this neighborhood.”
After Adam’s girlfriend got in touch with Nikki, we drove past the house she was living in with Adam. There was a cleaning crew painting inside who told us the previous tenants had recently moved out. She told Nikki that she loved Adam deeply and disclosed that cops would regularly target and harass Adam for months before Snyder killed him. We confirmed this through other residents who recalled Snyder as one of a few cops who regularly harassed Adam.
Then, Nikki got the idea to go to the homes near where Adam was killed to see if anyone’s door bell cameras captured anything. Two of the homeowners provided the footage their door cameras captured that night. Nikki could not bring herself to review the footage as she was grieving and could not bear to hear her son be shot again. One of our main organizers took on the task of reviewing the camera footage to see if there was anything that could shed light on what happened that night.
This footage that would later expose the IMPD is an organization that does not deserve the public’s trust or money.
Breaking the IMPD’s monopoly on the narrative with evidence
In April 2025, the Indianapolis branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) held a press conference at the Indy Liberation Center. The room was packed with media outlets, including WRTV, CBS, and WISH-TV. They wanted to see and hear the results of the independent investigation led by Nikki, the PSL, and Liberation Center. The consensus was that, at a minimum, the released findings raised serious concerns about the IMPD’s carefully-crafted presentation about their killing of Sykes. In reality, the cops’ entire narrative was exposed as a bald-faced lie.
First, officers abandoned the original emergency call to which they were responding. Instead, they started pursuing Adam because of a warrant for a misdemeanor.
Organizers stated that officers abandoned the original emergency call to pursue Sykes, despite him not being suspected in the reported assault. They also let the press hear how the IMPD’s publicly released “critical incident” video omitted audio we captured from nearby recordings. Specifically, we listened to Snyder’s superior encouraging the use of lethal force immediately before any gunfire.
IMPD cop: “F***ing kill him!”
The family demanded release of full, unedited body-camera footage, arguing that the department’s edited presentation—as is the case in many murders by IMPD—shaped public perception before independent review could occur. Community demonstrations soon followed, with protesters calling for transparency and accountability in the investigation.
The dispute over evidence became central to the case. Transparency became the primary battleground between grieving families fighting for justice and those doing everything within their power to prevent justice.
The Human Consequences
IMPD painted Adam as a ruthless criminal not worthy of life. Family members describe him as deeply connected to relatives and committed to rebuilding stability in his life. Most significantly, he was the father of an 8-year-old daughter battling leukemia, who will now grow up without him. The IMPD went on to shoot seven more people in 2025.
At public events following his death, relatives emphasized that Sykes never received the opportunity to face allegations in court. Instead, a suspected, non-violent offense resulted in a killing by police rather than due process or the assumption of innocence. Their demands have remained consistent for a year:
- Release of unedited footage
- Independent investigation
- Accountability for Officer Grant Snyder and all officers involved
- Transparency regarding departmental decision-making
No criminal charges have been announced. No disciplinary conclusions have been disclosed. No institutional wrongdoing has been acknowledged.
Institutional delay equals structural protection: Meet the new Chief, same as the old Chief
IMPD stated that the shooting remains under review by internal investigators, Internal Affairs, prosecutorial authorities, and the Civilian Majority Use of Force Review Board On paper, this process seems adequate but, in reality, it is another set of tactics to cover for killer cops.
In early 2026, Indianapolis appointed Tanya Terry as the city’s new Chief of Police, presenting her leadership as a new leaf, an opportunity to rebuild community trust. Within weeks, however, another incident revealed her true commitments; to serve the system, not the people.
A viral video captured an IMPD officer pulling over a Black student who was participating in an anti-ICE protest. During the traffic stop, the officer threatened, “I will f***ing kill you!” The public was immediately outraged and deeply alarmed.
The fact that the unresolved killing of Adam Sykes exists alongside new controversies under new leadership shows the persistence of the system, rather than its transformation. The families of IMPD victims statement after Chief Randall Taylor’s resignation brought them to the same conclusion.
One year later, the struggle bears results: Nikki Schumpert prevented IMPD killings
Nikki grew up in Norwood, a tight-knit Black community on the South East side of Indianapolis. We got to know her well. We learned that Nikki always wanted to be a foster mother for Black boys and girls to give them love. When anyone meets Nikki and her beaming smile, you absorb the surplus of love she has to give. She wanted to save Black boys from harm and help shape them into loving Black men. She told me when she first met Adam, she knew there was something special about him. As Adam grew up, he proved her right by becoming an amazing football player and loving father to his daughter.
Anniversaries risk becoming rituals of mourning rather than milestones toward justice. One year later, Nikki, her family, the Liberation Center, and the broader community are still demanding answers. They want to wait us out, but with organization, we are capable of enduring all of their tricks and tactics.
Adam was the first person killed by IMPD in 2025, and was not the last. Yet, when comparing the numbers of officer involved shootings for 2023 and 2024, we believe it’s clear that Nikki’s intervention dramatically slowed down how many people IMPD shot and killed in 2025.
In 2023, IMPD shot 19 people, killing 10. In 2024, IMPD shot 18 people, killing 11. In 2025, IMPD shot 8 people, killing 4 which includes Adam. Nikki’s bravery to stand up against IMPD’s racist lies in killing her son, exposed a system designed to terrorize our communities over keeping us safe. Yet, Nikki, alongside her families, friends, and community organizers fought back with the truth and slowed officer involved shootings in 2025.
Join the fight against IMPD terror! The Indianapolis Liberation Center is run by and maintained by everyday working-class and poor people, people like Nikki. If Nikki can slow down IMPD’s killing spree through organization, then even more tightly organized groups can put an end to it. Support our work by making a much-needed financial contribution of any kind and volunteer with the Indianapolis Liberation Center today!
Featured image: A relative of Adam Sykes speaks at PSL Indianapolis’ Liberation Forum in February. Credit: Indianapolis Liberation Center.