MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Police were justified in fatally shooting a man during a chase and gun battle in east central Indiana, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Jonathan Levi Allen, 28, a former Muncie resident who was living in Wichita, Kansas, died March 10 , one week after the March 3 shooting, Indiana State Police said. Allen was shot in the head by a Muncie officer and crashed his SUV into a parked vehicle, police said.
The officer who shot Allen and a second officer who also fired upon the suspect “unquestionably and without a doubt did so in self-defense and in the defense of others,” Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman said in a report.
When confronted by officers, Allen “chose to open fire at the police officers and civilians,” Hoffman said.
Muncie officers responding to a report of a suspect in an SUV firing gunshots tried to pull the vehicle over but Allen didn’t stop and a short pursuit ensued before police ended it because school buses were nearby, authorities said. The chase resumed when authorities learned Allen was holding a female passenger against her will in his vehicle, state police said.