ANDERSON, Ind. — Indiana State Police said a chase started in Anderson Tuesday and ended with a 16-year-old arrested with guns and drugs in the car he was driving.

Indiana State Police Sgt. Scott Keegan said a trooper tried to pull a Dodge Charger over near Forkner St. and 13th St. in Anderson. The driver got out and started running.

”As soon as the officer actually initiated the traffic stop the driver bailed and ran away on foot,” Keegan said.

The 16-year-old passenger then got into the driver’s seat and led police on a chase eventually ending in his arrest near the Sun Valley Apartments off Madison Ave. in Anderson.

“We found an AR-style pistol with a 45-round magazine inside the car and another smaller .380 handgun that was loaded at the time,” Keegan said.

Police said they also found 67 grams of a fentanyl pill called “M30” or “Pyro” in the car. Keegan said the pills are 1,000 times more potent than morphine.

”We’re starting to see it in the suburbs of Indianapolis, it’s starting to move out from Indianapolis,” Keegan said.

Folks in Anderson see this as part of a concerning trend.

”Shootings, shots fired, which is the new norm in Anderson it seems like,” said William Casey. “Which is not what it used to be like.”

Casey is a member of Madison County Hand Up Initiative, a group that does public safety walks around Anderson and the county.

Casey said he is appalled to see teens caught up in this.

”Kids with fentanyl, kids!” Casey said. “Really alarming.

Conversations about solutions are happening in Anderson, though. More than 60 people, including Casey, got together Wednesday to hear from the Indiana Youth Institute at a Youth Worker Cafe.

”Today’s topic is around poverty and gun violence,” said Clint Kugler with the Indiana Youth Institute.

Kugler said their partners in Anderson reached out to them about doing the workshop.

”They leaned in and said this is an issue for our community and we need to have a better understanding of it,” Kugler said.

Attendees and the IYI had conversations about what leads to gun violence with teens. 

”What is the impact on poverty and exposure and the environments we create for kids to avoid that piece and help them thrive,” Kugler said.

Casey said these conversations help but they need parents to be at the table, too. 

”Parents got to get involved,” Casey said. “That’s the biggest problem, they should know what their kids are doing.”

State Police are still looking for the original driver of the car.