Republished October 13, 2017 - 2:33 PM
Original Publication Date October 13, 2017 - 5:51 AM
DYER, Ind. - An Indiana prosecutor has determined that police officers acted in self-defence in the fatal shooting of a suspected car thief following a chase in an Indiana suburb of Chicago.
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter announced Thursday that the four Indiana officers wouldn't face charges in the Aug. 10 shooting of 33-year-old Mark P. Coffey, of Chicago Heights, Illinois.
The officers from the Dyer, St. John and Lake County police departments shot Coffey after a chase that began in Crete, Illinois, and crisscrossed the state line several times and included Coffey striking a jogger on a sidewalk in Sauk Village, Illinois.
After hitting the jogger, Coffey encountered Indiana officers about 6 a.m. near a gas station in the town of Dyer, about 30 miles (50 kilometres) south of downtown Chicago. Authorities didn't release any new details about the confrontation, including whether Coffey was armed or fired any shots at the officers.
The Crete, Illinois, police chief said the day of the shooting that the suspect appeared to have a gun when Crete officers confronted him during the chase.
Coffey faced an arrest warrant for battery and robbery and had an ankle monitoring bracelet from the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to police.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017