Bullets have been fired at the home of an Indianapolis councilman, Ron Gibson, after he pledged support for the construction of an AI data center.

The attack was unique in the fact that it came with a handwritten note emblazoned with “NO DATA CENTERS” and was left under the doormat, in plain sight. Thirteen bullets were fired in total.

The son of the council member was sleeping in the early hours at the time of the event. Luckily, no one was harmed in the shooting.

Law enforcement are treating it as an outlier of an incident. Meanwhile, Gibson said in a statement soon after the event:

I understand that public service can bring strong opinions and disagreement, but violence is never the answer, especially when it puts families at risk.

Data sparks local outrage

The shooting happened less than a week after Gibson publicly encouraged proposals for a new data center in his neighborhood.

The plans were put in place to repurpose two unused buildings (to house servers) into a data hub and included 26 electrical generators.

Los Angeles tech startup Metrobloks is the company behind the scheme. The proposal went to a vote, which was successful on a vote count of 6-2.

A local utility company (AES Indiana) would be responsible for powering the site. A sizable 75 megawatts of power is required, although Metrobloks pledged to cover fiber and energy upgrade costs, reported USA Today.

Gibson had previously said at a public hearing on April 1st that the project would succeed in “bringing it (the site) back into productive use in a way that benefits both the surrounding neighborhood and our city.”

indianapolis — Riverside, Indianapolis. Education Images via Getty.

A polarizing issue

Data centers split opinion in the US due to expansive aspirations for AI infrastructure.

Consequently this comes with financial risk, as well as the gargantuan costs of powering the digital infrastructure.

A Jefferies report from February drew on the bipartisan politics regarding data centers, as electricity bills nationwide are expected to rise incrementally.

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Six states have seen temporary delays, also known as moratoriums, as the public goes against the grain through political pressure. In other cases, plans to construct data centers have been axed entirely.

This, in turn, can cause big tech companies to cover the bill, such as when Microsoft committed to doing so at the turn of the year, especially following pressure from President Donald Trump.

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In Indianapolis itself, protests and information campaigns have been utilized to continue the opposition.

Meanwhile, council member Gibson has continued to commit to the data project, as well as condemn the violence, as shown by his attendance at the regular council meeting held on April 6th.