(NETWORK IN) The Evansville man who was shot and killed by a police officer after coming at him with a bat Tuesday, could have stopped the situation himself when he walked down the steps and federal court officers decided not to chase him, said police at a news conference Wednesday, where they released a video of the shooting.
“The videos we have seen support the version of events that we were provided by the officers, aswell as witnesses,” said Sgt. Jason Collum, of Evansville PD.
Ricky Ard, 55, was shot and killed after he chased an officer with a bat he was using to bust out windows and glass doors at the federal courthouse building, from which he had been escorted the previous day.
The officer who actually pulled the trigger was ID’d as Officer Kenny Dutchke, an 11-year veteran of the department, who has crisis training. Collum said Ard chased after Dutchke with the bat before he was shot. From the time Evansville officers arrived, to the time Ard was shot, was 11 seconds, said Collum.
But, he said Ard could have stopped.
“After Mr. Ard had smashed out the windows, he actually retreated from the building down to the front steps along Martin Luther King Blvd.”
The court officers who had been dealing with Ard decided to wait.
“Not following him down there was the prime opportunity for that situation to take a different path than it ultimately did. He disengaged himself, but unfortunately chose to re-engage for a second encounter after the EPD officer arrived,” said Collum.
Collum addressed two concerns, both from comments on Facebook. Collum said the officers had been accused of murder and abusing power by some people who had posted about the situation.
“It took longer for those social media critics to log in to their account than it did for our officer to arrive, asses the threat, take action, re-asses the threat, avoid his attacker and take additional actions to preserve his own life,” said Collum.
He also said the fact that it was a bat did not make it less of a threat for the officer.
“According to the latest FBI statistics, which covers 2011 to 2015, 2,335 people have been murdered by blunt objects that include bats, hammers, clubs, etc. It’s not about the name of the object, it’s the intent of the attacker and the ability of the object to carry out the attacker’s intended goal.”
Collum said Dutchke felt his life was in jeopardy if Ard’s actions had been allowed to continue.
“Which actually crossed the legal threshold where deadly force could be
Police Shooting Video on Facebook courtesy of Jordan Vandenberge and Tri State Home Page