Vauhxx Booker accused of shoving IMPD officer at downtown bar & grill
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The man at the center of a July 4, 2020, fight near Lake Monroe is facing a potential charge of battery against a public safety official after a Sunday morning encounter with Indianapolis police at a downtown restaurant.
Vauhxx Booker was yelling at an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer after 6:35 a.m. Sunday at Downtown Olly’s, 822 N. Illinois St., according to a probable-cause affidavit from the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office filed in Marion Superior Court 34.
The officer wrote in the affidavit, “I was approached by a black male yelling about the staff members at Ollie’s (cq) bar being intoxicated, rude yelling and screaming racist comments to him.”
The man was later identified as Booker. The officer encouraged him to contact the owner of Olly’s, and advised the restaurant staff to have Booker leave the business if both parties could come to an agreement.
Booker then became upset with the officer “for not locking anyone up” and demanded to speak to an IMPD supervisor. He told the officer he was going to record their interactions on his cellphone.
After the officer explained why no one would be locked up, Booker became “very agitated and angry,” and then shouted to another IMPD officer “about killing blacks in Indianapolis,” the affidavit said.
Eventually, an IMPD supervisor and the restaurant owner came to the business to talk with Booker and try to piece together a police report. Booker turned over his driver’s license as identification to the IMPD supervisor during the talk, the affidavit says.
As the supervisor awaited a case number to be assigned, Booker began yelling at the supervisor in regard to the driver’s license, the affidavit says. Booker then shoved the supervisor on his upper chest, knocking him momentarily off-balance. The supervisor regained his balance, pushed Booker back and placed handcuffs on him.
All three IMPD officers had body-worn cameras operating, the court document says.
A special prosecutor on July 30 charged Booker in Monroe Circuit Court 2 with battery and criminal trespassing in relation to the July 2020 incident near Lake Monroe. An initial hearing that had been set for next week has been canceled, according to court documents. A new hearing date has yet to be determined, online court records show.
Booker has claimed to have been the victim of a hate crime in the July 4, 2020, incident near Lake Monroe.
The men Booker claims to have attacked him, Sean Purdy and Jerry Edward Cox, were earlier charged. Each faces charges including criminal confinement, battery, and intimidation. Online court documents show Purdy and Cox will have a hearing Friday in Johnson County to consider dismissing the criminal cases against them.
The original investigation by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources did not call for charges to be filed against Booker or the two men he accused of attacking him.
