Man charged after shooting police dog in gunbattle with trooper
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A 26-year-old man on Thursday will face formal charges after a gunbattle a week ago that injured the police dog of an Indiana State Police trooper.
Cortex Boxley will be formally charged with attempted murder, carrying a handgun without a license, resisting law enforcement and striking a law enforcement animal during his initial hearing Thursday morning in Marion Superior Court, Criminal Division 6. It’s not his first time to be in trouble with the law, court documents show.
Trooper Walter Butt and his police dog, Apache, were in the parking lot of the Far Eastsde Neighborhood Center, 8902 E. 38th St., as part of a police manhunt on the night of Oct. 10. Boxley was not the person police were seeking in the manhunt, but was suspected to be when Butt approached him.
Court documents and police say Butt attempted to pat down Boxley for weapons. When Boxley resisted and ran off, Butt released the police dog. When it caught up with Boxley, he fired his gun, police said. Butt fired back and hit Boxley at least one time.
Boxley was taken to Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital, where he was recovering, court documents said.
Evidence technicians found 14 spent .45-caliber cartridge casings in the area where Butt fired his .45-caliber service weapon, court documents said. Technicians also found a Taurus Ultra-lite .38 Special revolver with five spent cartridges in the cylinder.
“A review of Cortez Boxley’s criminal history indicates he has prior arrests for auto theft, resisting law enforcement, possession of a handgun without a license, theft, battery, disorderly conduct, intimidation, public intoxication, serious violent felon in possession of a firearm, residential entry and parole violation,” court documents said.
He was convicted of attempted residential entry and sentenced in 2015, and convicted of auto theft and sentenced in 2013, the documents said.
The police dog ran from the gunbattle and was found the next morning with an shooting injury to its neck, court documents said. An X-ray and examination at IndyVet Emergency & Specialty Hospital found bullet fragments in the dog’s neck, and a veterinarian recommended the fragments not be removed. The dog’s current condition was not immediately available, but it was expected to fully recover.
