VIDEO: Pa & Ma’s Backyard BBQ reopens after fatal shooting
Pa & Ma’s Backyard BBQ is back to business as owner George Nelson Sr. would have wished after the shooting that killed him on August 21, 2024.
INDIANAPOLIS — Less than 12 hours after George Barnett Nelson Sr. was shot and killed on the city’s north side, candles lit outside the restaurant where he fed a community for decades. People gathered to remember how important Pa & Ma’s Backyard BBQ was in their lives while still shocked that “Pa” is no longer there.
Jeffery Walker said that “Pa” fed him, his friends and his family for free as children when he sold plates in front of his Graceland Avenue home in 1995.
“I have known Mr. and Mrs. Nelson since I was a young boy,” Walker said. “George has been a pillar of this community for as long as I have known him. He never turned away a hungry person. Whether they were short of money or had no money at all, he was a philanthropist who motivated many people to follow their dreams.”
Social media was filled with posts about the impact Nelson, 56, had on the neighborhood where he worked, and people lamented that not even community workers were safe from the city’s violence.
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“Chris Beaty does positive things to uplift his community and gets killed. Mike Treez does positive things to uplift his community and gets killed. Big George Nelson does positive things to uplift his community and gets killed,” Tevin Studdard wrote on social media. “I don’t even know the meaning or purpose anymore, brother. Black men that I looked up to for doing the right thing for their communities don’t get the chance to grow old.”
Despite all the sadness and grief, it was important to open the restaurant on Thursday because, according to his family, that was what Nelson would have wanted.
After gathering around the burning candles on Thursday morning, employees began cleaning up and preparing for the restaurant’s daily opening.
George Barnett Nelson Sr., 56
His daughter, Brockelle Nelson, received her brother’s call about her father around midnight. She lives in Washington DC and was on the first plane to Indianapolis.
On Thursday morning, she pulled up to her father’s restaurant and was greeted with tears and hugs.
“My dad hated having a boss,” Nelson said. “He wanted to be his own boss. So my mom’s brother asked him, ‘What would you do for free?’ and he said, ‘I would cook.'”
George Nelson’s mother owned a catering business and he grew up in the food business. He shattered the stereotype that soul food was unhealthy and carefully prepared the portions on his menu.
He and his wife Monica Nelson were already a couple in high school.
The family is from Evansville but moved to Indianapolis in 1995 and began selling license plates from their home.
“He wanted to be the Midwest Goon with the spoon,” Nelson said. “He wanted to give people recipes and tips and tricks on how to do different things. Since 2007, we’ve had to build Pa & Ma’s BBQ out of brick and mortar.”
As grocery stores moved out of the Riverside neighborhood and a food desert emerged, George and his wife were eager to bring a black-owned family restaurant with fresh food and affordable prices to the area where he grew up.
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Pa & Ma’s Backyard BBQ was originally located on North College Avenue, less than 3 miles from its current location. They have been at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street location for less than six months.
“He raised half of Indianapolis,” Nelson said. “He really wanted to hire people from that community. My dad felt that there weren’t many examples of people sticking together, especially in the black community, and he wanted to create something. Mind you, this was hard work with his own money. No assistance. He wanted to build something.”
Man arrested for shooting
Nelson was shot near his restaurant on Wednesday night and died hours later in the hospital, police said.
When Indianapolis police responded to a report of a shooting shortly after 8:20 p.m., they found Nelson fatally wounded outside his restaurant.
At around 11:53 p.m. and about 9 miles away in the 2000 block of North Bancroft Street near East 21st Street, police were called to another report of shots fired. There, police found a vehicle they believed was connected to Nelson’s murder.
Police detained and arrested at least one man in connection with the shooting. According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police, the incident was over a dispute over money.
Brockelle Nelson said her father hired the arrested man to repair the restaurant’s siding. They agreed to pay, with the man receiving half up front and the rest upon completion of the job.
“My dad found people from the neighborhood or people he knew,” Nelson said. “He wanted to give people a chance and a chance.”
According to Nelson, her father and the man began arguing via text message and phone because the worker wanted all the money to do the work.
“The guy came here and they started arguing back and forth. My dad is 6’4″ and 369 pounds, so he’s an intimidating man. They got into a little scuffle and the guy pulled out a gun and shot my dad three times in the chest.”
Nelson said she is moving back to Indianapolis to pick up where her father left off with his vision for the restaurant.
She wants others to realize that taking a life is never worth it.
“That’s not it, I swear,” Nelson said. “It never gets that deep. Have a conversation. Communicate when you disagree. Do what you want, but you don’t have to kill anyone.”
IndyStar is not naming the man arrested in this case because no formal charges have been filed against him.
Jade Jackson is a public safety reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at [email protected] and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.
