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A sheriff’s deputy may have been killed during a nighttime raid in Indiana over a syringe. To compound the tragedy, another deputy was injured and a suspect died during the incident.
Deputy Carl A. Koontz was shot while trying to serve a warrant on a man named Evan Dorsey last month in Russiaville, Indiana. Dorsey, who had previously been arrested for drug possession, had failed to appear in court over a charge of possession of a syringe.
Koontz’s partner, Sgt. Jordan J. Buckley, also was shot during the incident. He survived.
Dorsey died shortly after the raid of a self-inflicted gunshot, The Indianapolis Star reported. The raid took place around 12:30 a.m.
Radley Balko, who writes about criminal justice for The Washington Post, said the raid should never have occurred.
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“A deputy is dead, a suspect is dead, and a third deputy was seriously wounded because a guy failed to appear in court after he was arrested for possessing a syringe,” Balko wrote, adding: “The Indianapolis Star reports that the suspect had prior arrests for drug possession. Not distribution. Just possession.”
Koontz was married with an 8-month-old son.
Howard County Sheriff Steven Rogers told the media: “You can only imagine the loss here … a wife with a small child, so we’re just trying to be as comforting as we can and help her through this process. That’s basically it. We’re trying to be there in every way we can for her.”
Dorsey had a drug record dating back at least five years involving both marijuana and heroin.
It isn’t known if the police knew Dorsey’s drug possession past, which took place in multiple counties.
“A major problem in this state in that individual counties don`t talk with each other about the criminal history of defendants,” attorney Jack Crawford told Fox-59. “… I bet you anything that each judge that sentenced Dorsey was unaware of his full entire criminal history.”
Lodge 78 of the Fraternal Order of Police has set up a GoFundMe page to collect donations for Koontz’s widow, Cassie, and their child.
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