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Police identify Mishawka man in fatal shooting

Police have identified Michael Jarvis, 48, of Mishawaka, as the man who fatally shot Dr. Todd Graham, 56, Wednesday afternoon in the parking lot of the Saint Joseph Rehabilitation Institute.

Police say that Jarvis’ wife was a new patient of Graham’s who suffered from chronic pain. Graham refused to prescribe opioid pain medication as part of her treatment.

The initial consultation where Graham refused to prescribe medication happened at 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday at the South Bend Orthopaedics building. At around 1 p.m., Jarvis arrived at the Saint Joseph Rehabilitation Institute parking lot where he confronted Graham about the medication. He then fatally shot Graham twice in the head.

Jarvis then fled the scene to a friend’s house about three miles away. The friend later called police, who found Jarvis on the property, dead, from two self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

St. Joseph County Prosecutor, Kenneth Cotter says it’s important to not lose focus of the main story.

“Make no mistake that this was a person who made a choice to kill Dr. Graham,” Cotter said. “This is not a fallout from any opioid epidemic or any opioid problems. That probably leaves us to examine the opioid problem in our community and frankly in our nation. Was that a contributing factor in his decision? We don’t know that yet. We have our own suppositions, but I don’t want to talk about something we don’t know for sure.”

Cotter says there is some indication that Jarvis had his own issues with opioids, but investigators are still looking into that. Jarvis was not one of Graham’s patients.