Probable Cause Affidavit In IMPD Officer Shooting Raises More Questions

UPDATED: Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry announced murder charges today against Major Davis, Jr., a man a probable cause affidavit prepared by Det. John Maloney of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department accuses of firing an AK-47 assault-style weapon at Officer Perry Renn, a more than 20-year veteran of the police department. Curry told reporters today he is still pondering whether to seek the death penalty in Davis' case. At least three bullets fired from an AK-47 assault rifle claimed to be held by Davis struck Officer Renn, including a fatal bullet that entered below his armpit where his protective vest provided no covering, passing through Renn's lung and into his heart. According to the probable cause affidavit, Renn wasn't the first officer to arrive. That was Officer Nick Gallico, and he may not have even encountered Davis first if an unidentified female civilian passenger in his car [name redacted from affidavit] hadn't drawn his attention to Davis. [Update--A member of the media provided me an unredacted version of the affidavit handed to reporters at the press conference which identified this woman. I've removed her name from this post, but nobody from either IMPD or the prosecutor's office requested that I do so. They shouldn't distribute public documents to the media with people's names on them if they don't want them reported. I've also changed the link from the reporter's unredacted version to a version posted by the Star, which on its own redacted information not redacted by IMPD or the prosecutor's office before it was distributed.]

Officer Gallico says he responded to a call of shots fired near the 34th and Forest Manor around 9:25 p.m. on July 5, or right about sunset time. Gallico was driving south on Forest Manor Drive near 34th Street when the civilian female passenger riding in the front passenger seat, alerted him to a man she said appeared to be trying to flag the officer down. Officer Gallico stopped and backed his car up, straddling a gravel alley behind the house at 4067 E. 34th Street where she saw the African-American man she described as having long hair braids and wearing a blue shirt. Gallico exited his squad car with his gun drawn and walked towards a utility pole on the south side of the alley behind the backyard of the house where Davis was standing. Davis began walking towards him with one hand held behind his back according to Gallico, who ordered Davis to show his hands. Davis replied "no" and began backing up with two women standing nearby him. As one of the women tried to back Davis away, the other woman with Davis told Gallico everything was okay and he could leave.

Gallico says he kept his eyes trained on Davis, who he feared was holding a gun because he wouldn't show his hands and he said it was getting dark in the alley where they were located. At that point, Gallico says Officer Renn arrived and walked passed him in the alley with his gun drawn so that he was standing to the west of Davis and Gallico was standing to the east of him. Gallico then claims that Davis raised the barrel of his AK-47 assault rifle held at his side and pointed it in the direction of Renn, who said something unintelligible to Gallico. According to Gallico, Davis began firing at Renn first who immediately began returning fire. Gallico says he began returning fire before running for cover behind a white car parked behind Davis' home. Gallico says that when he emerged from behind the car, both Renn and Davis were on the ground shot and he ran to provide aid to Renn shortly before numerous other police officers arrived on the scene. Gallico says he is certain that Davis is the man who fired the shots at Renn.

It is unclear from the probable cause affidavit whether the female witness remained inside Gallico's police cruiser or had exited before the shooting occurred. She described a scene where Gallico walked towards Davis and asked him to talk to him. She said Davis had his hands in his pockets and responded with words to the effect, "I don't need to talk to anybody. I don't give a fuck." She described a woman wearing a green blouse who she believed was Davis' girlfriend coaxing him to back away from Gallico next to a van parked behind the house. When Renn arrived, the female witness saw him move west down the alley past Davis. She then said she heard what sounded like gunshots being fired into the ground, but she couldn't see either Renn or Gallico firing their weapons. She thought the sound of the gunshots came from the area behind the van where Davis and the woman she described as his girlfriend had retreated, giving the impression she did not have visual contact with either Davis or the woman with him at that point. The female witness then saw Renn fall to the ground and the woman with Davis running towards the street yelling, "He's shooting, he's shooting." At that point, she saw Gallico begin returning fire. Like Renn, Davis was struck by multiple bullets, although the affidavit doesn't specify the number of times he was hit.

The AK-47 used by Davis was purchased by his mother, Cynthia Davis, from Don's Guns in 2010. Although his mother purchased the weapon, Davis had no prior criminal convictions that would have made it unlawful for him to purchase or possess the weapon. The probable cause affidavit gives the impression that Davis had remained in the backyard of his home during the entire encounter with the two police officers. A male witness approached police shortly after the shooting to retrieve a cell phone he had left behind in the backyard. The witness told police that a number of people had gathered at Davis' home for a barbecue. Shortly before police arrived, he said Davis began arguing with another person. He realized his cell phone was missing and went inside the house to look for it. He came back outside after he was unable to locate his cell phone. The witness saw the police arrive and when he went back outside, he saw Davis standing with a gun at his side and two police officers with weapons drawn pointed at Davis. He saw one of the police officers begin firing at Davis at which point he said Davis fired back about four times. Shortly after the gunfire, Latasha Ruffin, the mother of Davis' children phoned 911 and said, "The police just shot my fucking boyfriend . . . They shot each other." For some reason, the probable cause affidavit failed to redact the cell phone number from which Ruffin made the call. The unidentified man who lost his cell phone who returned to retrieve it said he dropped it in the backyard when he ran after the shooting began. It's unclear where he found it before losing it again.

Interestingly, police recovered just four 7.62 mm casings fired from Davis' AK-47, one of which was retrieved near the exterior wall of a house on the other side of the alley at 3370 N. Forest Manor from the backyard of Davis' home. That's consistent with the statement from the unidentified male witness at the Davis home who claimed Davis fired about four shots after one of the police officers began firing at him. They recovered three 40 caliber shell casings in the eastern part of the yard near Gallico and eleven 40 caliber shell casings from the western part of the yard near Renn, which were presumably fired from the two officers' semi-automatic sidearm weapons. Objectively viewing the sometimes contradictory statements of the witnesses, it isn't immediately possible to conclude Davis' guilt. He should be afforded the benefit of the doubt as our criminal justice system demands until proven guilty, and the defense attorney assigned to defend him has plenty of room to question how precisely this unfortunate shooting went down. Can anyone envision Davis' defense invoking Indiana's Stand Your Ground law as a defense to the deadly shooting of Renn? It's not out of the question. Did the police have probable cause to believe Davis had broken the law when Gallico first confronted him and compelled him to raise his hands in the air? Was there exigent circumstances for the police to stop and frisk Davis? I've still not heard any explanation over neighborhood witness claims that the sounds of fireworks, which have been commonplace all over town around the Fourth of July, were heard prior to the shooting. Were those sounds fireworks or actual shots fired from a gun? Who placed the 911 call about gunshots being fired that caused police officers to respond to the area? Here's what Indiana's Stand Your Ground Law says:

(i) A person is justified in using reasonable force against a public servant if the person reasonably believes the force is necessary to: (1) protect the person or a third person from what the person reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful force; (2) prevent or terminate the public servant's unlawful entry of or attack on the person's dwelling, curtilage, or occupied motor vehicle; or (3) prevent or terminate the public servant's unlawful trespass on or criminal interference with property lawfully in the person's possession, lawfully in possession of a member of the person's immediate family, or belonging to a person whose property the person has authority to protect.

(j) Notwithstanding subsection (i), a person is not justified in using force against a public servant if: (1) the person is committing or is escaping after the commission of a crime; (2) the person provokes action by the public servant with intent to cause bodily injury to the public servant;     (3) the person has entered into combat with the public servant or is the initial aggressor, unless the person withdraws from the encounter and communicates to the public servant the intent to do so and the public servant nevertheless continues or threatens to continue unlawful action; or (4) the person reasonably believes the public servant is: (A) acting lawfully; or (B) engaged in the lawful execution of the public servant's official duties. 

(k) A person is not justified in using deadly force against a public servant whom the person knows or reasonably should know is a public servant unless: (1) the person reasonably believes that the public servant is: (A) acting unlawfully; or (B) not engaged in the execution of the public servant's official duties; and (2) the force is reasonably necessary to prevent serious bodily injury to the person or a third person.

It is worth noting that both Renn and Gallico had extensive military training before becoming police officers. Renn served in the U.S. Army for ten years before becoming a police officer. He was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina during most of his service with the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper. He achieved the rank of staff sergeant and was awarded achievement and commendation medals. He did two tours in Korea and participated in Operation Urgent Fury, the controversial invasion of Grenada during the Reagan administration that was supposedly carried out to rescue American medical students following a military coup American intelligence officials claimed was carried out by Soviet-backed rebels who were constructing a large runway that would supposedly be used for military purposes. About 7,000 soldiers participated in the Grenada invasion. Renn also spent 18 months working as an Army recruiter in New York.

Officer Gallico began his career in security and law enforcement as a security officer for the U.S. Air Force. He spent 13 months in Korea, served one deployment in Iraq, one deployment in the United Arab Emirates and was stationed for a time at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. After leaving the Air Force, he was hired to provide executive security for a high profile Indianapolis businessman before becoming a sworn police officer with IMPD. Gallico operates his own private security firm, Gallico Security Services, which provides private security to executives, as well as security for private businesses, special events and traffic control according to the firm's website, which curiously went dark late this evening. His security firm employs a number of off-duty police officers. Tragically, Gallico's 56-year old father, died only a week before last weekend's shooting. Frederick Gallico worked in radio sales for the Continental Broadcast Group and played the guitar in a band called the Verdibyrds. He also owned FJG Photography.

Fox 59 News' Russ McQuaid identified the witnesses redacted by other news sources in his report here, including the name of the female civilian who was riding with Officer Gallico.