Officer shoots armed man during domestic violence call in Evansville

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An officer with the Evansville Police Department shot an armed man while responding to a domestic violence call Sunday night.

According to the police department’s Facebook page, officers were dispatched around 9:15 p.m. to an incident at a home in the 3200 block of Tiffany Court. That’s in a neighborhood just west of State Road 62 and I-69, roughly 5 miles northwest of downtown Evansville.

“The call received by dispatch indicated that the suspect had been abusive in the past, has just thrown the family’s cat at the victim, and that there were young children present in the home. One of the children also spoke with dispatchers, stating that their father was ‘drunk’ and was possibly in the process of retrieving a firearm,” EPD said Monday morning on Facebook.

Officers arrived at the scene four minutes after being dispatch and saw the suspect, an adult male, pulling the curtains on the front window closed.

Shortly after, a young child ran out the front door, then turned around and ran back inside the house.

The mother, holding a 3-year-old child, was sitting on the ground near the front door while the suspect stood behind her with a gun.

As they approached the house, Evansville police officers called for the man to drop the gun.

Instead of complying, the man raised the weapon and pointed it at officers. In response, one officer took cover, while a second officer fired one round at the suspect, wounding him, according to police.

Officers helped the mother and children out of the house before giving medical aid to the suspect.

The suspect was taken to a local hospital for emergency surgery. His condition was not immediately available and police did not provide his name.

No officers were injured during the incident.

Both Evansville police officers involved in the response have been placed on administrative leave pending investigation. Their names will be released “at a later time,” the department says.