MUNCIE, Ind. — After an Indiana State Police investigation, Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman found the officer-involved shooting that killed 28-year-old Jonathan Levi Allen was legally justified.
The shooting happened March 3. Officers from the Muncie Police Department responded to a shots fired call around 1 p.m. When they arrived, they found Allen and a passenger inside a red Chevy Blazer with a license plate that was registered to a different car.
Allen told police there were guns inside the vehicle, but he refused to show his hands after officers ordered him to do so multiple times. Allen threatened to kill himself, then sped away, and officers chased him. That chase was called off after Allen got near a school and started weaving in and out of the buses at a high rate of speed.
About 30 minutes later, officers were called about a red SUV stuck in a field. When officers arrived, Allen again threatened to kill the woman in the car with him. Somehow the Blazer got loose of the mud and took off through the field.
The chase continued, and near State Road 32 and Jackson Street in Selma, where a Delaware County sheriff's deputy pulled his fully marked vehicle in front of Allen. Allen slowed down, pointed a gun out the driver's side window and fired two shots at the officer.
The two shots hit the sheriff deputy's patrol car. ISP later found five shell casings in the area that matched the handgun found on the driver's side floor of the Blazer.
Allen shot at another officer near Pittenger Street and Railroad Street, damaging the driver's side window of the police vehicle. That officer shot back at Allen through the front windshield, but did not hit him.
Allen continued driving and fired shots at two people on the sidewalk near the American Legion. The same officer again shot at Allen through his front windshield, but missed.
Allen continued the chase into Muncie and was getting near the Ball State University campus. He again fired, this time at two officers following him. The officer in the passenger seat — a veteran officer on the SWAT team — fired his rifle and shot Allen in the head. The Blazer came to a stop.
According to the prosecutor's report, Allen resisted when police tried to remove him from the vehicle. Police began medical care once they noticed Allen was bleeding, and medics transported him to the hospital.
Later, ISP detectives found multiple weapons, ammunition and drug paraphernalia.
A toxicology screen conducted at the hospital revealed Allen had methamphetamine and amphetamine in his system.
Allen had active warrants out of Kansas and Indiana on the day of the incident. He died a week later.
Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman found police used reasonable force in responding to the incident, calling Allen's actions "quite severe and violent." Hoffman noted Allen's actions put both police and the public at risk.
