The weapon used by a man who police say shot at them from a window before they returned fire was an air rifle, IndyStar has confirmed.
An image of the weapon shared by IMPD showed it was labeled as a GAMO product. GAMO is a company that offers pellet air rifles and air guns, according to its website.
Air rifles and BB guns aren’t classified as firearms under Indiana state law. Police have not announced if they are charging the man, who was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The department has not said if the officer who fired back struck the suspect.
Officers were called just before 8 p.m. on April 8 about a person shot in the 1200 block of West Sumner Avenue. Outside, they found a man who had been grazed on the back of his neck. As they began giving aid, police said, another man began firing shots from an upstairs window of a nearby apartment home.
“It’s an air rifle,” Brian Baxter, who spent 30 years in law enforcement with the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed to IndyStar. “It shoots a metal BB or pellet. Probably a .177 caliber. Not a firearm, but definitely more dangerous than an airsoft rifle.”
When asked to verify the weapon, IMPD said in an initial statement to IndyStar that the investigation was still in its early stages. They confirmed hours later that it was an air rifle “which is capable of causing serious injury or even death at close range.”
The man whose neck was grazed told IndyStar he was mowing his grass when he was struck. His home is at least 120 feet from the home of the suspect. No officers were struck or injured in the incident.
Experts weighed in on the likelihood of someone being fatally harmed by the rifle.
Man allegedly shot air rifle at police from upstairs window
“GAMO is a real popular air rifle and air gun brand,” Baxter said. “That’s one of those more accurate air rifles, meaning it has a little bit more air pressure and a little bit more velocity in the projectile. A lot of people use them for squirrels or birds. Small game stuff, so they absolutely can hurt you, but they’re very unlikely to kill you.”
He said air rifles shoot a type of metal, usually an alloy like copper or sometimes lead. The sound of an air rifle is also distinctly different from that of an actual firearm.
Baxter said unless you were struck in a carotid artery or shot through the eye to your brain, the risk of dying is lower.
“With the nature of the call they [IMPD] were responding to, it’s very difficult to identify objects. It would be 100% reasonable for an officer to respond to that kind of call, have that kind of priming of someone’s been shot, someone’s shooting in the neighborhood, and then see what is unmistakably the shape of a rifle.”
Prominent Indiana attorney Guy Relford, who specializes in the Second Amendment, told IndyStar that an officer has to have a reasonable belief that they are preventing serious bodily injury for the law of self-defense to apply.
Everything is based on what they see, hear and the totality of the circumstances.
“It looks like a real gun,” Relford said. “You can’t tell the difference even up close. You can’t identify that in the moment. ‘You’ll shoot your eye out kid,’ applies to how dangerous this weapon can be categorized.”
Relford said if charges are brought against a suspect, it would most likely be some form of battery, which becomes a felony if it’s committed against a public safety official.
Can an air rifle kill you? It did a Hamilton County man before
In 2013 in Hamilton County, a man was killed after being shot in the chest with a pellet gun, according to a news report by Fox59. The 45-year-old was found in the driveway of a home by law enforcement. He was rushed to Riverview Hospital before being pronounced dead.
Fox59 reported that the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 19-year-old on a preliminary charge of reckless homicide. The teen was later found not guilty.
At the time, officials issued a call to the community to be mindful of pellet guns, Fox59’s reporting stated, noting that “anything that fires projectiles can be deadly and should be used with caution.”
Jade Jackson is a public safety reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Air rifle in officer-involved shooting isn’t considered a firearm in Indiana
Reporting by Jade Jackson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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