Police fatally shoot Indiana man after pursuit, shots fired

COLUMBUS, Ind. — Police fatally shot a central Indiana man after he allegedly fled from officers and fired at them, leading to an hours-long standoff that ended when he was shot as he picked up a rifle.

Martin Louis Douglas Jr., 30, was pronounced dead at the scene Wednesday evening after Indiana State Police SWAT team members shot him outside his pickup truck in a Bartholomew County cornfield he had driven into while fleeing officers, state police said.

Officers began pursuing the Nineveh man Wednesday morning after Brown County authorities reported Douglas was despondent, might be armed “and possibly intended to harm one or more acquaintances,” state police said in a news release.

A Columbus police officer who spotted Douglas’ truck tried unsuccessfully to it, leading to a multi-agency pursuit that wound into Jackson County before reentering Bartholomew County as police said Douglas drove erratically at high speeds.

After his truck hit a tire deflation evidence, Douglas stopped it in the roadway and fired about fifteen rounds from an AR-15 style rifle at pursuing officers, police said. Officers returned fire before Douglas drove into a cornfield and stopped his truck, which officers surrounded and began trying to negotiate with him.

After a roughly five-hour standoff, police said state police SWAT team members fatally shot Douglas after he exited his truck and picked up a second AR-15 style rifle from a box in the rear of his truck.