Richmond Police Chief Mike Britt has asked the Indiana State Police (ISP) Pendleton District to investigate a police action shooting that occurred Sunday involving officers from the Richmond Police Department. The incident occurred shortly before 11 a.m. Sunday morning, when Wayne County Dispatch put out a call for a reckless driving vehicle on the west side of Richmond.
According to a press release from ISP, the early investigation shows that an officer was sitting in his car, on the phone, in the Richmond City Building parking lot, (located at 50 N. 5th St.,) when the reckless driving vehicle pulled into the lot, close to the officer’s vehicle. A man inside the car began yelling at the officer “Kill me, shoot me.” The officer immediately radioed for assistance and began slowly driving away from the suspect’s vehicle across the lot.
When two more officers arrived, the suspect got out of his vehicle and began stabbing himself with a knife. When officers began giving verbal commands to the man, he ran towards them, wielding the knife in a threatening manner, shouting “Shoot me, kill me.” Officers continued to shout verbal commands as the man closed the distance between them. As the suspect closed the distance to around ten feet one officer was forced to shoot the suspect
The suspect fell to the ground, and officers immediately began administering first aid and summoned EMS. The suspect, Brian Sherer, age 34 of Centerville, was flown to a hospital in Dayton, Ohio, with what is believed to be, at this time, survivable injuries, according to the press release.
