Questions still remain surrounding a fatal police shooting in the early hours of Sunday morning as an Elkhart man suspected of a Roseland shooting was himself killed by police on Sunday morning after a high-speed chase that ended in Marshall County.
What happened in the moments before officers from the Mishawaka and St. Joseph County police departments shot Johnny Lee Wood, however, is still not clear.
Mishawaka Police Chief Ken Witkowski did not respond to messages from reporters on Tuesday so it’s unclear why the officers fired at the 54-year-old Wood and whether the shooting was consistent with departmental policy.
Troy Warner, an attorney with St. Joseph County police, said the county officer involved has been placed on paid leave while Indiana State Police investigates. Warner said county police have given all their body camera footage to ISP, but the statement did not provide any more details as to why officers decided to fire at Wood.
ISP will present their findings to the Marshall County Prosecutor's Office since Wood was fatally shot in a field just south of Elm and Tyler Roads.
According to state police, St. Joseph County officers were called out around 5 a.m. on Sunday for a shooting at a motel in Roseland. Scanner traffic indicates the target of that shooting called police and told them the make of Wood’s car as Wood drove away from the scene. Police saw the car all the way on the east side of town a short while later, but Wood apparently did not stop and began a chase, leading St. Joseph County and then Mishawaka officers down Capitol Avenue.
Per scanner traffic, the ensuing pursuit reached 90 miles per hour at times as it continued down Elm Road south of town. Eventually Wood drove into a field where Elm Road ended and continued on foot for some period of time before he was shot and killed.
Mishawaka’s policy manual, similarly to other departments in the area, allows officers to use deadly force against a fleeing subject if police have probable cause the suspect has committed an offense involving a serious risk of bodily injury.
An autopsy for Wood was performed Tuesday.
