A South Bend man has been arrested and charged with two felonies for allegedly shooting at Indiana State Rep. Jake Teshka’s car on the St. Joseph Valley Parkway in December.
According to court documents, Teshka — a Republican who represents state house district 7 — told police that on December 8, a man driving a maroon Dodge Caravan with Georgia plates pulled alongside him on the bypass near Cleveland Road and fired two shots into his SUV, a white GMC Acadia.
The shots shattered the driver and passenger side front windows, and Teshka was struck by glass. His two children were in the back seat of the SUV, and Teshka also told police that the van had been driving erratically before the incident. Court documents say that security camera footage from area businesses corroborated his story.
And after reviewing traffic cameras which captured the van’s license plate, police determined it was owned by Enterprise Car Rental and had been rented by 51-year-old Edmande Hill at the time of the shooting. Teshka then identified Hill as the shooter out of a photo lineup.
In an interview with a police detective, Hill said he had been driving the van in the area of the shooting on that day and did see Teshka’s windows shatter.
But he said he believed the shots came from two men standing on the side of the bypass in some bushes, who he speculated were hunting rabbits.
In a press release, the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s office said Hill was arrested in Porter County Thursday and charged with attempted battery by means of a deadly weapon, a level five felony, and criminal recklessness, a level six felony. He is currently being held in the Porter County jail.
Contact Jakob at jlazzaro@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @JakobLazzaro.
If you appreciate this kind of journalism on your local NPR station, please support it by donating here.
