Suspects involved in chase, police shooting identified

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A police chase involving Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department ended with an officer fatally shooting one of the suspects on the city’s northeast side.

According to IMPD, an officer shot and killed 34-year-old Joshua Dyer of Huntington, Ind. following the chase that began around 6:30 Tuesday evening.

IMPD said that two male suspects, 41-year-old Mathew Cole the driver and Dyer the passenger, were approached in Washington Park for parking in an unauthorized section of the park.

The officer approached the vehicle, but said the occupants uncooperative and didn’t provide truthful information.

IMPD said the suspect’s vehicle, a 2007 white Nissan Altima, took off and a pursuit began, with the suspect vehicle disregarding several stop signs.

According to IMPD, the suspects crashed their vehicle into a fence. The officers got out of their vehicle and ordered the suspects, at gunpoint, to exit their vehicle.

IMPD said the driver got out, then got back in and put the vehicle in reverse.

According to IMPD, one of the officers, fearing for his own safety, fired one shot that struck and killed the passenger, then the driver surrendered.

“It’s safe to say that the officer feared for his life as the vehicle was approaching him and he was on the side nearest to that vehicle and really had, as we can see, no way out other than to be engaged by the car or hit by the car,” said Sgt. Kendale Adams.

Cole was arrested by IMPD.

As is standard procedure, the officer who fired their weapon will be placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.