The suspect in the deadly shooting of 24-year-old Elwood police officer Noah Shahnavaz was a repeat violent offender with prior convictions for shooting at police officers.
Suspect Carl Boards, II, was charged Monday with murder, resisting law enforcement, resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, and possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon.
Court documents say Boards, 42, shot Officer Shahanavaz around 2 a.m. Sunday near the intersection of State Road 37 and County Road 1100 N. in Madison County.
FOP President Rick Snyder says Officer Shahanavaz’s murder is a tragedy that should have been prevented.
“The suspect should have been in prison for his prior convictions, but a Marion county judge gave this repeat violent offender a lenient sentence,” Snyder told the Hammer and Nigel Show Monday.
In 2006, Boards was sentenced to 25 years in prison for attempted murder after firing shots at cops in Indianapolis. He appealed, however, and was instead sentenced on a criminal recklessness charge and released early. Boards also has a weapon possession conviction from 1999 and a drug possession conviction from 2001.
“The judge combined all of the offender’s charges in his 2006 conviction, which should have totaled 39 years executed in prison,” Snyder explained. “Instead, the offender only got 25 years and only served 13.”
Officer Shahanavaz was shot while he was inside his patrol car. Investigators say Boards fired as many as 36 rounds.
“Now [Officer Shahanavaz’s] family is having to cope with planning his funeral, and we have judges and prosecutors and members of the criminal justice system who are more concerned with excuses than they are with outcomes,” said Snyder.
Snyder told Hammer and Nigel he’s fed up with activists and government officials who are weak on penalties for violent offenders and simultaneously ask, “When will the violence end?”
“It will stop when the criminal justice system starts holding repeat violent offenders accountable.”
Click below to hear Hammer and Nigel’s full interview with FOP President Rick Snyder.
https://omny.fm/shows/hammer-and-nigel-show/fop-president-rick-snyder-talks-war-on-cops
