KENDALLVILLE – At roughly 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Kendallville Police received a report of shots being fired at an apartment complex on Berry Lane near Drake Road on the south side of Kendallville. Officers from KPD and ISP responded immediately, and upon their arrival, an unidentified male suspect began shooting at them from a second-story apartment balcony at 645 Berry Lane. There was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and the officers. The suspect retreated into the apartment and continued firing multiple rounds at officers from inside the apartment.
Numerous officers from multiple agencies continued responding to the scene and were met with continuous and indiscriminate gunfire. SWAT personnel and armored vehicle assets from the ISP, Auburn PD, Allen County PD, Fort Wayne PD, along with FWPD’s Air Support Unit responded to the scene to provide a coordinated tactical response. Once armored vehicles were on the scene, officers were able to begin systematically evacuating the adjoining apartments and the neighboring apartment buildings, and then moving those residents to safety.
During the standoff, attempts to establish a line of communication with the suspect were unsuccessful, and the suspect never responded to officers’ loudspeaker (PA) announcements and commands.
At approximately 6:05 a.m., nearly eleven hours after the incident began, SWAT officers made entry into the apartment. The suspect was taken into custody without further incident. He was found suffering from an injury, but the extent of the injury was not known. He was immediately attended to by on-scene paramedics, however all life-saving measures were unsuccessful. He succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Moving forward, the Indiana State Police will be the primary investigating agency. Although the immediate incident has been resolved, this is an active ongoing criminal investigation. Currently, there is no further information to release. Once the Noble County Coroner has confirmed the identification of the suspect, an update to this release will be sent out.
When the investigation has concluded the full report will be turned over to the Noble Count Prosecutor for review.
At the time of this release, residents of Drake Terrace Apartments and surrounding homes were being allowed to return to their homes.
Agencies assisting at the scene were the Indiana State Police- Fort Wayne Post/Bremen Post/Special Operations Division, Kendallville Police, Auburn PD, Noble County Sheriff’s Department, Fort Wayne PD, Allen County PD, Avilla PD, Ligonier PD, Dekalb County Sheriff’s Department, Kendallville Fire Department, Parkview EMS personnel, the Noble County Prosecutor.
