LAFAYETTE, IN —Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Patrick Harrington has cleared several Lafayette and state police officers, indicating that their Nov. 21 police-action shooting that killed a Lafayette man was justified.
“Based on review of the evidence and the applicable law, the use of deadly force by officers of the Lafayette Police Department and the state troopers of the Indiana State Police was a proper exercise of their rights of self-defense and defense of others, and therefore, their actions were legally justified under the law,” according to a statement published Friday afternoon from the prosecutor’s office.
“The Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office will not be filing criminal charges in this matter,” the statement reads.
Both police agencies have stated through their respective public information officers that the names of those involved in the shooting would be released to the public once the officers were cleared.
Lafayette police Sgt. Matthew Santerre released the names of five officers on Monday afternoon after a request from the Journal & Courier: officers Jacob Kelly with four years on the department, Ryan Crosby with two years, Michael Odom with seven years, Zachery Cain with six years, and Justin Johnson with one year.
The Lafayette police shooting review board concluded Dec. 3 that the officers’ actions were within department policy. The five returned to duty on Dec. 9.
“The troopers involved were Francisco Miramontes and Thad Decker, and both returned to duty on Dec. 9,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Jeremy Piers wrote in an email response to the J&C’s request. “The review board process has not yet been completed and comes after the release of findings from the prosecutor’s office.”
The shooting
About 12:15 a.m. Nov. 21, Lafayette officers stopped Rodolfo Requenes Jr., 50, who was driving near South Street and Sagamore Parkway. They suspected he was intoxicated, Lafayette police said in November. Police said he made statements that led the officers to believe he might be suicidal.
Requenes then drove away from the traffic stop, and officers did not chase him, as per their policy, police said in November.
Less than an hour later, officers patrolling in the area saw Requenes and followed him. He traveled north on Frontage Road to Waterford Court Apartments, where he drove to the north side of the complex and backed his car into a parking space on Porsche Lane, according to police.
He got out of his car and ignored police officers’ orders, police said Tuesday.
He repeatedly told officers that he had a firearm, police said. Just before he was shot, Requenes reached his hand to his waistband behind his back as if he was preparing to draw a sidearm, police said.
After the shooting, police did not find any weapons, police said Tuesday.
Police scanner broadcasts indicated that shortly after the shooting, officers applied a tourniquet to his right arm and to his left leg. He died at the scene, Tippecanoe County Coroner Carrie Costello said.
Costello release Requenes’ final report last week, changing the preliminary cause of death from suicide to homicide in the final autopsy. He died from multiple gunshot wounds.
“The medicolegal death investigation of Mr. Requenes Jr. indicates Mr. Requenes Jr. intentionally provoked police officers into shooting him,” Costello said last week in a news release. “According to the National Association of Medical Examiners’ Guide to Death Classifications, when a person dies ‘as a result of provoking law enforcement to use lethal force, the death may be classified as a homicide.'”
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Prosecutor’s office clears 7 officers involved in fatal shooting
Reporting by Ron Wilkins, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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