INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD said they are prepared for a busy weekend in the downtown area and across the city. The department says you may notice officers on horseback and riding bicycles.

“We will also have officers down on the canal that will be supported by our horse patrol and our Indianapolis police park rangers, they’ll be out as well too,” Officer William Young said. “So, you will see a presence, I won’t say a higher presence because we do it every single day, but you will see a presence of police officers throughout the Circle City.”

To wait out the rain, we caught up with several families from out of state excited for the race.

“I was here the first year that the Indy 500 was ever stopped because of an accident,” Paul Bell said. “That was the year that Dave MacDonald and Eddie Sachs both died.”

This is the 11th time he will attend the race in-person. It will be the 10th time for his wife Kathy. They are here with their grandson, son and wife.

“The people are so friendly and so nice, it brings us here every year,” Kathy said.

In the past few weeks, downtown has endured several fatal shootings. Two people were killed in a quadruple shooting outside of the Fairfield Inn & Suites on West Washington Street on Monday. A man was also shot and killed on Ohio Street on May 11. Police said these two shootings are not random.

“I can’t tell folks how important it is that when we see gun violence that we get that information so we can relay that to our investigators,” Young said.