Content warning: This story discusses gun violence injuries and contains images of gun shot scars that may be upsetting to some readers.
Nate Boggs was trying to sell a gun. He ended up being shot nine times.
After the incident on Jan. 2, 2025, Boggs was taken to IU Health Methodist Hospital for his wounds. But someone else entered the 20-year-old’s hospital room about an hour after the shooting — and they had a job beyond emergency medical care.
“I was offered rehabilitation services,” said Boggs, who is now 22. “I figured if they could help me, I’d take it.”
For the next several months, Boggs received free therapy through the Indianapolis Hospital-linked Violence Intervention Program. The initiative sends people trained in violence prevention to the bedside of shooting victims.
“It’s a critical window,” said Mary Alexander, the vice president of the Indy Public Safety Foundation, a nonprofit that runs the hospital-based program. “Survivors may be thinking about retaliation, worried about their safety or uncertain about what comes next.”
The program is based on a national model that treats gun violence as a public health crisis. The goal is to interrupt the cycle of shootings by addressing physical and mental trauma. Other cities across the country, including St. Louis, Baltimore and Detroit, have used the model.
Since launching in Indianapolis in 2024, the hospital intervention program has triaged at least 125 victims of gun violence and hosted 745 therapy sessions. Recently, it expanded to Riley Children’s Hospital, where some of the city’s youngest shooting victims will now be seen by life coaches.
The current program at Methodist is open to any person injured by gunfire who consents to being seen. Some participants eventually enroll in the Indy Peace Fellowship, a program where both perpetrators and victims of gun violence are further mentored by life coaches. The fellowship primarily focuses on working with Black men between the ages of 18 and 35, a group at a disproportionately high risk for gun violence. The program is a partnership between the city’s Office of Public Health and Safety and the Indy Public Safety Foundation.
Boggs wasn’t the only person wounded in the 2025 shooting. One person was killed and another was injured. Boggs, who wasn’t arrested in the incident, had to recover from being shot in the neck, torso, arm, leg and knee.
That night in the emergency room stuck with him, the terror often showing up in dreams. He thought he was going to die.
“I just wanted to be next to my mom,” Boggs said. “I didn’t think I was going to make it. I felt ashamed that this is where I led my life to.”
‘A fork in the road’
Chauncey Anderson keeps his phone on at all hours of the day. Often, it rings in the middle of the night — a quiet announcement of another shooting.
Anderson, who manages Indy Peace’s life coaches, meets with victims in their hospital rooms downtown. For this work, he keeps one statistic top of mind: “One shooting typically has the potential for four more in retaliation.”
He sees his role as being a calming presence in the midst of the chaos.
“It’s common for people to not be thinking clearly, whether it’s because of retaliation, medication or pain,” Anderson told Mirror Indy. “We try to walk through it with them.”
The conversation, he said, often turns to the reasons people have to live: their kids, family, getting back to work.
“Getting shot is a fork in the road,” Anderson said. “We are trying to help you take the path to recovery.”
He brings a specific message to people lying in a hospital bed: “What happened to you isn’t who you become.”
As the wounds heal, violence prevention workers stay in touch and connect people with resources for food, housing, employment, transportation and mental health. Data shows the effort, part of Indy’s larger gun violence reduction strategy, is paying off.
Indy Peace shared data that shows that the city’s criminal homicides have fallen by about 29% between September 2025 and September 2026. Non-fatal shootings are also decreasing.
“People see this narrative on TV, but the shooting numbers are trending down,” Anderson said. “The community benefits from this work more than they would think.”
‘He didn’t let this define him’
Boggs still remembers the days when he needed help getting in and out of the shower. Now, he walks steadily. His wounds have settled into scars.
“I thank God every day I am still able to use my body and mind,” Boggs said.
After being triaged in the hospital, Boggs started focusing on longer-term needs. He joined the Indy Peace Fellowship. His life coach, Kacey Rudolph, helped him get transportation to doctors appointments and educational opportunities. He graduated from a HVAC school, with plans to start working on maintenance and repairs jobs.
Through the program, Boggs said he realized just how common gun violence is — and how quickly a regular day can turn deadly.
“I saw that I wasn’t the only one who has gone through something like that,” he said. “I’m not the only person who’s lost a part of themselves. It kind of put me back together.”
He still meets with his life coach, who calls him by his first name.
“Natall is my shining star,” Rudolph said. “He didn’t let this define him.”
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Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
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