An Indianapolis police officer fatally shot a suspect in an armed carjacking Tuesday after the suspect dropped something while fleeing on foot and reached to pick it up, police said.
Officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department were dispatched to the city's east side just before 9 a.m. about a carjacking. A female victim told officers that a suspect had approached her car at gunpoint and demanded the vehicle and other items.
She told police additional suspects had remained in their vehicle while the carjacking took place and that all the suspects then fled in her car and their vehicle.
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After a description of both vehicles was broadcast to officers, one officer located the two vehicles and encountered a male suspect, telling him to "get on the ground," police said in a statement.
The suspect instead began running away toward the suspects' gray sedan while the officer commanded the suspect to "drop the gun," police said.
As the suspect neared the sedan, the suspect "dropped an item and went to grab it," and the officer then opened fire. He fired shots three separate times, striking the suspect at least once, police said.
Police Chief Chris Bailey said the suspect was pronounced dead at a hospital and the other suspects fled the scene in the sedan. He said at an afternoon news briefing that the suspect had "dropped something," though it’s unclear whether he dropped a gun or something else.
"I’m heartbroken for everyone involved in this. This is not something we want to ever happen," Bailey said.
Bailey said that officers found two firearms near the suspect. The chief said the officer who fired his gun was equipped with a body-worn camera that was activated at the time.
That officer has been placed on administrative leave, a routine step following shootings involving police officers.
