Police chase across Indiana-Michigan border ends with suspect shot, killed

LATEST: The deceased male has been identified as Joshua Ringle, 32, of South Bend. A female passenger in the Kia was not injured or arrested. She has not been publicly identified.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WISH) — Indiana State Police say a man is dead after a police chase that crossed the Indiana-Michigan border ended in gunfire.

Michigan State Police began chasing a red Kia that fled from a traffic stop in Niles, Michigan, around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Kia led police across the state line and headed south on State Road 933. Officers from Indiana joined the pursuit and followed the suspect into South Bend.

Near the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Marion Street, the Kia hit the vehicle of a South Bend police officer who was throwing out stop sticks.

After hitting the police car, the man got out of the Kia and ran toward the St. Joseph River. That’s when shots were fired, state police say. Investigators haven’t said if the shot was fired by the suspect or by police.

A Michigan state trooper who was following the suspect in his patrol car went partially over an embankment, striking a tree. State police didn’t say if the trooper was injured.

After shots were fired, police began a search for the suspect and found him deceased at the bottom of an embankment near the river.

State police did not provide the man’s name or age or say why he fled the initial traffic stop.

An autopsy was scheduled for Friday at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

At the end of the state police investigation, all information will be turned over to the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office for review.