ST. JOHN, Ind. — An on-duty St. John Police Officer shot his gun at another off-duty police officer.
The incident started early Tuesday morning around 2:30, when a St. John Police officer began to investigate an abandoned car on W. 93rd Avenue and Cline Avenue.
While he was on foot he searched the ditch with a flashlight while standing on the shoulder of the road, when the officer said he saw a car driving to him, almost hitting him.
The officer said he feared for his life and shot several times at the car, but didn’t hit the driver. Later the driver of the car was arrested and discovered to be an off-duty Hammond police officer on his way home.
Hammond’s Mayor, Tom McDermott, denounced the shooting by saying that the off-duty officer went to the other side of the road to prevent hitting the other officer.
“We are happy to report that, other than property damage to his vehicle (a bullet hole in the passengers seat), the Officer is physically unharmed…The off-duty Officer (a St. John resident), maintains he did nothing wrong, just maneuvered his vehicle to other side of the road to give space to ongoing traffic stop,” McDermott said on a social media post, “Suddenly,the Hammond officers vehicle was fired upon (multiple times) by the St. John Officer.”
“This instance of Deadly Force was dangerous & unnecessary. The St. John officer who made the decision to use deadly force, is a danger to society & doesn’t deserve to wear the badge of Hoosier Law Enforcement.”
