VIDEO: Person killed in police-involved shooting at Pendleton Pike Mote
IMPD detectives attempted to execute a drug search warrant at a motel at 9205 Pendleton Pike and were accompanied by a SWAT team when a police-involved shootout occurred.
This article is being updated.
LAWRENCE, Indiana – What began with a drug search warrant ultimately ended with a man’s death after he and police made split-second decisions.
At around 10:30 a.m. Friday, SWAT officers from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department attempted to execute a search warrant on a man they described as “armed” and “dangerous” at the Park Terrace Motel, 9025 Pendleton Pike, in Lawrence.
When the SWAT team arrived, they alerted the two people in the motel room to their presence, according to Deputy Police Chief Michael Wooley. Police knocked on the door, sounded their sirens and used a bullhorn to repeatedly tell the people to leave the room “peacefully,” Indianapolis Police Chief Chris Bailey said during a news conference at the scene.
After several failed attempts to get the couple to leave, the SWAT team broke the window and forced their way into the room, where they found a man and a woman hiding in the motel room’s bathroom, police reported.
The police ordered the people to surrender, whereupon the woman approached the officers and allowed herself to be arrested.
However, according to police, the man did not give up and eventually resisted when officers tried to handcuff him.
At some point, the man broke free from the officers’ grasp in the kitchen area of the motel room and grabbed a Draco firearm.
At that moment, two police officers shot the man “immediately,” Bailey said.
He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. None of the officers were injured.
After the shooting, police searched the motel room and found a pill bottle next to a Springfield pistol. The Draco gun was on a blood-splattered plate next to a slice of pizza on the motel floor.
“We would prefer that people always follow the officers’ orders. They were there to execute a valid and signed search warrant,” Bailey said. “It’s … disappointing that someone had to lose their life. This didn’t have to happen.”
Bailey noted that there were multiple warrants out for the man’s arrest. He also said that it was common practice for the SWAT team to process drug-related warrants due to the dangerous nature of these types of searches.
The two officers who fired their weapons in the shooting have been placed on leave and the department is conducting an internal investigation in accordance with policy.
The man’s name will be released once the Marion County Coroner has notified his next of kin.
This is not the first time a search warrant has been issued for the motel. Indianapolis police records available online show more than 100 calls to the address, ranging from death investigations, overdoses and disturbances dating back to 2021. There have been at least 11 warrant-related searches and arrests during that time period.
The motel was already on a list of numerous police operations involving motels and inns in 2018 after a city and county council wanted to crack down on owners who did not make efforts to curb crime.
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2024 Police-involved shootings in Indianapolis
This is the tenth shooting this year involving officers from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
July 2: When police responded to a 911 call about a person shot, they encountered 86-year-old Richard Bures, who they said pointed a gun at them shortly after 11:30 a.m. in the 5100 block of West Vermont Street. The man, who had already shot himself, pointed the gun at officers multiple times, and at one point two officers fired their weapons. Investigators found a revolver but no evidence that another person had been shot. They also found a note saying the man wanted to commit suicide, police said.
June 25: Elijah Hakiem Radford, 45, was suspected of shooting a woman and then leading police on a several-mile chase that ended in Castleton, where he allegedly threatened a woman with a knife before being fatally shot.
June 1: An officer fired his weapon while investigating gunfire downtown around 3:20 a.m. Neither the suspect nor the officer were injured.
28 May: Jerrett Dwain Gray Jr., 20, was a suspect in an armed carjacking when he was fatally shot while fleeing police at the Cavalier Court apartment complex. Two firearms were recovered during Gray’s arrest. One of the weapons was equipped with a machine gun conversion device commonly referred to as a Glock Switch.
15 May: Kelvin Andrew Chandler, 26, who was accused of shooting his roommate, was fatally shot during a “gun battle” with a police officer in the 6500 block of Apollo Way. His roommate survived.
May 2: Lemar Brandon Qualls, 35, was shot and killed after police were called about an armed person pointing a gun at people in the 3900 block of Broadway Street, near 38th Street and North College Avenue. Police said witnesses said Qualls pointed the gun at officers.
March 31: Luis Duran-Ruano, 31, was killed after a SWAT team standoff on Winston Avenue that began with a call about a man firing into the air near West 33rd Street and Georgetown Road.
March 24: Dominique Lamonte Durham Sr., 37, was fatally shot March 24 in a shootout with off-duty security guards at an East Washington Street nightclub.
24 January: Raphael Dekemper, 41, was shot and killed in a shootout with police on Brookside Parkway North Drive.
Justice Department investigation into police shootings
In mid-April, Mayor Joe Hogsett and Bailey announced that the Justice Department would conduct a comprehensive review of police shootings after a sharp increase in 2023, when officers were involved in 17 shootings in which someone was killed or injured.
No timetable for publication of the results of this review was provided.
Previous reporting: At the request of Police Chief Bailey, the Department of Justice intervenes to investigate shootings involving Indianapolis police
