Two northern Indiana police officers who ran toward the sound of gunfire early Sunday fired shots at a car inside which one man was killed and another person wounded, authorities said. Norman Gary, 29, of Elkhart was shot and died at the scene, in the 1800 block of DeCamp Avenue, shortly before 4 a.m. Jazzlyn Crase, 22, of Elkhart was shot and transported by ambulance to Elkhart General Hospital where she is being treated for non-life threatening injuries. Delanos Johnson, 24, of Elkhart,was shot and transported by ambulance to Memorial Hospital South Bend where he is being treated for non-life threatening injuries.
“The tragedy of it all is it’s just happening far too often in Elkhart, Indiana. Too many tragedies in such a short amount of time,” Elkhart community activist Arvis Dawson says.
The officers weren’t hurt and the wounded people didn’t have life-threatening injuries, he said. Police said investigators weren’t immediately sure whether those inside the car were wounded by the officers, and it wasn’t clear who shot the other two people.
According to Snyder, the two Elkhart officers became engaged in a gun battle in front of a home on DeCamp. The Elkhart officers had been dispatched to the 500 block of Capitol Boulevard on the report of a burglary, Snyder said. As officers arrived, they heard gunshots coming from the 1800 block of DeCamp Avenue.
The police-involved shooting, and the related events, are being investigated by the Indiana State Police with the assistance of additional local agencies, according to an Elkhart Police Department news release.
An autopsy of Gary’s body is expected to be performed Monday.